


Wreck it Freddy's 4

by Kapra90



Series: Wreck it Freddy's Series [4]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Fanfiction, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:40:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4773881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kapra90/pseuds/Kapra90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short while after the shutdown of the Freddy Fazbear cabinet, all of its inhabitants from games past and their arcade friends try to move on with their lives. However, something seems to be holding them back from doing so, and when the darkest secret yet is revealed, all hell will break loose. Will the "final chapter" spell "game over" for our heroes? Co-written by Dixie Darlin of FFN.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Lingering Troubles

Mike bit his lip, glancing around the room as everyone awaited for him to speak. It was the conclusion of another Bad Anon meeting, all of the attendees uttering the phrase of the day to help promote mental and emotional healing. They had gone around the room, now Mike's turn to say the phrase. His nerves increased, only calming when he felt a comforting hand pat him as gently as possible. He glanced up, forcing a smile as Ralph gave him an encouraging nod. Mike took a deep breath before standing up.

"I, Mike Schmidt, forgive myself for what I am scripted to do..." He paused for a moment. "... outside of gameplay, I am my own person."

Clyde nodded, smiling proudly. "I know that took a lot for you to say, Mike. I think you deserve a round of applause."

The room clapped politely, those who COULD clap, and Mike smiled nervously as he sat down. "Thanks, Clyde."

"Okay, so for next week, we will be addressing stigmas between bad guys and how appearances come off to others. We'll talk about how we can overcome that stereotype and how to boost your confidence level. Great job everyone." Clyde said, everyone in the room getting up to take their leave. "And Bowser, you still need to help me patch up that hole you left on the south wall..."

"Thanks for letting me tag along, Ralph." Mike said to his larger-than-life friend as they boarded the small train to exit Pac-Man, along with the other arcade's resident bad guys.

"Don't mention it." Ralph smiled as he gently patted the smaller man on the back. "I hope you find what you're looking for in these meetings. And that you actually believe the mantra you just said." He added pointedly.

Mike sighed as the train started up, zipping along the electrical cord tunnel towards Game Central Station. "I WANT to believe it, but... it's hard."

"I know." The wrecker frowned, sighing as he recalled his own early meetings with Bad-Anon. "It'll take some time for you to heal inside, okay? Don't try to rush the process."

"Gee, you sound like Clyde." Mike grinned up at him.

"Eh, when you hear the same basic message every day, after a while, you start regurgitating it." Ralph chuckled. "But I'm serious, don't expect a miracle after just a few days, okay?"

Mike nodded, inwardly sighing as the train came to a halt. He wanted nothing more than to believe that he was a good person, that he wasn't just the product of a madman's brainwashing, someone who went around killing children for...for what reason, exactly? WHY would he do such a thing, brainwashed or not?

"Hey, you comin'?"

Ralph's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, prompting Mike to scurry off the train and catch up. "Sorry, was thinking."

"I could tell." Ralph said worriedly. "Maybe you should get some rest. Don't need you passing out on us while we finish up building the new housing development." He added as a slight joke.

What with all the animatronics being homeless now thanks to their game being unplugged for good, they were all in need of permanent homes. There were so many of them that they needed their own safe community to live in, so Felix and Ralph proposed making them a neighborhood in their own little corner of Niceland.

"I'll be fine." Mike assured him, rubbing the back of his neck. "You go on ahead, though, I'll catch up later. Might see what Jeremy's doing."

Vanellope was seen rubbing her temples, some screeching heard in the background. When she noticed Mike and Ralph, she sighed with relief.

"Thank gumdrops you're here! Foxy, BB and I have been trying to help Springtrap with speech therapy all morning! No matter what we do, he just can't control his volume!" Vanellope cried.

The familiar screech from the third Five Nights at Freddy's installment sounded once again, Vanellope groaning lightly. Though the GCS community had started to show acceptance for some of the other animatronics, the same could not be fully said for Springtrap for several reasons. One, he was the newest animatronic, and not as much was known for him. Second, he had the most ragged and worn appearance, often turning others off. Unlike the others, who had learned some social cues and some even could manage to speak a sentence or two, Springtrap struggled to communicate with others, and what would be meant as a harmless sentiment or greeting came out in an ear piercing screech that often terrified others without meaning to. Mangle and Foxy had become his biggest advocates, Mangle knowing the toil of being reduced to a social recluse.

"Maybe we should install a muffler." Ralph suggested, wincing as Springtrap emitted yet another garbled howl. "That'll for sure keep his noise level down."

"Jeremy's pretty good with mechanics." Vanellope brought up. "You think he can figure something out?"

"He's been pretty busy with Mangle lately." Mike answered her, frowning as Foxy patted a downhearted Springtrap on the back. "But he might be able to squeeze in another project... if asked nicely."

The torn up animatronic rested his face in his hand, feeling like a failure. It wasn't his fault, the poor thing, but they all agreed they needed a bit of a break from the noise.

"BB and I are going to take a nice, quiet drive around Sugar Rush... I need some peppermints for my headache." She and BB headed off, and Mike glanced over towards a shed that had been built to keep spare parts and repair equipment for the animatronics. He saw Jeremy rummaging around in there, grabbing some tools and walking further in the back. Further down the street, Felix could be seen working tirelessly on a new string of apartments.

Ralph went over to help Felix out, giving Mike a small wave of farewell. Springtrap headed off with Foxy to sit and watch the ducks in Niceland's pond; at least THEY weren't scared of him. Mike stuck his hands in his pockets and moseyed on towards the back of the neighborhood where the shed was.

Jeremy grunted as he set down a large box on the ground, blowing out his breath as he straightened up and rubbed at his aching back. "All right, Mangle, let's see if we can get that fourth leg attached today." He said as he plopped down on the ground, briefly removing his hat to wipe sweat from his brow.

In order to boost Mangle's self-confidence, and also just for the sheer ability of moving around easier, Jeremy had come up with the idea to reconfigure her to stand upright like the other animatronics. He used Toy Chica and Foxy as references, for female proportions and fox appearances respectively. When done, she would stand just a few inches shorter than Foxy and be all white with pink accents, just like her face.

The female fox garbled when she saw Mike approach, Jeremy turning his head to see him. "There you are, geez, could've used you like ten seconds ago when I was breaking my back hauling this box."

"Poor thing, what do you want, a back massage?" Mike joked at him, reaching down to roughly rub Jeremy's hat against his head.

"C'mon, Mike, quit it." Jeremy fussed at him in an embarrassed tone, tugging the brim of his hat over his eyes. "I think Mangle would like me to finish this up TODAY, not next year."

"Sorry, Mangle, I'll leave your expert mechanic alone." Mike sighed as he sat down on the grass about a foot away from Jeremy, who was now getting some things out of his box of parts. "Hey, you think when you get a chance, you can rig up a noise filter for Springtrap so he won't be so loud?"

"Easy enough." Jeremy shrugged, his eyes fixed on his hands as they worked a bolt loose. "Mangle's first priority though." He patted her on the head when she grumbled a response.

Mike nodded, leaning back a bit with his palms propping him up. "Went to Bad-Anon today."

"What for?" Jeremy asked as he wrenched the now loosened bolt onto its new home on Mangle's leg. "You're not a bad guy, why do you need to..." He stopped in mid-sentence and sighed, turning his head slowly towards Mike. "Mike, we've talked about this."

"I still feel terrible, Jer... I can't help it. I killed those kids..."

"Mike, you are a victim of abuse." Jeremy stated flatly with a serious look on his face. "Phone Guy jacked your head up by almost killing you as a kid, and then he took advantage of it later on to knock off a bunch of kids. If not for that, you'd be a normal person with no issues whatsoever. You're innocent, okay?"

"What if there's more to it than that?" Mike rubbed at his head, leaning forward a bit as he stared at the grass he was sitting on. "What if I had the idea to kill them on my own? I had to have a reason to go along with it. What if I-"

"Mike, just... stop." Jeremy gripped his friend's shoulder and squeezed it. "Why does it even matter? We're not connected to the games anymore. We have new lives, new friends, everything's different. Does it really matter what we did in the past anymore?"

"It does to ME!" Mike suddenly raised his voice, causing Jeremy to flinch and remove his hand. "Just because you don't feel bad anymore about killing innocent children doesn't mean that I shouldn't feel bad either!" He blinked when he realized what he'd just said, horrified to see the hurt expression Jeremy was wearing. "Aw, man, I'm sorry, Jer…" he immediately apologized, reaching a hand out. "I- I didn't mean-"

Jeremy looked angry then, smacking Mike's hand away from him. "The hell, Mike, just because you feel bad doesn't mean you can come over here and try to make ME feel bad."

"I'm sorry..."

"And for the record, I DO feel bad about what we did to those kids." Jeremy added through clenched teeth as he hung his head down, his hands shaking as he tensely gripped the tools he still held. "I just don't wallow in it anymore. I get sick of being tied down to the past, a past I'd rather forget. Why can't you just... just move on, Mike? Be happy... with how things are NOW?"

Mike blew a slow breath out, his eyes shutting. "I wish I could..." He muttered as he stood up, leaving Jeremy and Mangle to themselves.

Mangle glanced back and forth between the two young men, nosing at Jeremy's knee and whining. Jeremy fixed his hair under his hat, wiping under his eyes. "I'm not going to feel bad about moving on, okay? Dammit... fine, I guess I could've been nicer, but..." He exhaled deeply, dropping the subject as he silently continued working.

Meanwhile, Calhoun bit her lip, finishing using a power drill to secure some lumber on the new apartments. She and Felix had been working non-stop to get the structure built, a permanent home for the animatronics that had grown from few to now, a dozen. Between the Penthouse, which the Nicelanders had not been happy about, and Vanellope's castle, there just wasn't enough room anymore for comfort. Wiping a brow, Calhoun hopped off the lower beam, dusting herself off. She did a quick look around, letting her head fall back as she hissed with annoyance.

"Dunderson, I told you to have that next batch of lumber here! Dunderson, front and center before I-" Calhoun stopped, gritting her teeth in anger upon turning a corner to find the party animal preoccupied with something else. Lady Gogo, his new girlfriend, giggled quietly as she leaned in to make out. Bobby was more than happy to oblige, his back up against the wall of the partially constructed building. "DUNDERSON!"

The two lovebirds jerked when Calhoun screamed at them, their eyes widening when the sergeant stormed over there. "Dunderson, this is a hazardous area, what are you doing bringing civilians over here!"

Lady Gogo, Sugar Rush's resident singer/dancer diva, scoffed and threw her hair back behind her shoulder. "C'mon, the poor baby's been working hard all day. Doesn't he get a break?"

"Yeah, Cap, take pity on me!" Bobby pouted, giving her a puppy-dog look for extra emphasis.

"Break time is when I say it is." Calhoun growled, not about to take sass from anyone. "And for the last time, it's SERGEANT! Now get back to work!" She pointed at Lady Gogo firmly. "And YOU stay away from the construction zone!"

"Sorry, babe, didn't mean to get you in trouble with the fun police." Bobby frowned at his girlfriend.

"It's okay, sweetie." She smiled at him, glaring at Calhoun before very pointedly giving him a kiss on the lips. "We can make up for it later."

Calhoun groaned, smacking her face with a palm as Lady Gogo strutted off, leaving Bobby with little hearts surrounding his head.

Bobby sighed blissfully. "Man... she's just the best... like a never ending party in my heart... and an even harder party in my pa-"

"Tammy!" Felix hopped up to them then, beaming. "Great news! The animatronics can start moving into the finished apartments tomorrow! Some will have to share until we finish the rest, but at least they'll be able to feel like home, sweet home!"

"Fantastic, short stack. I'm going to give the first shift of my men the rest of the day off, they need to save enough energy for gameplay tomorrow. As for YOU, Romeo, you will get the rest of that lumber piled on the east side of that building or I will kill your 'party,' understand?" Calhoun snapped.

"Aye aye, captain!" Bobby beamed, whistling as he strolled over to the lumber.

"It's SERGEANT!" Calhoun shouted. "Oh, for the love of…"

In Sugar Rush, BB, taught by Vanellope herself how to use a kart, was driving her around one of the tracks as she felt the light breeze blowing through her ponytail. She sighed lightly, rubbing her eyes. She thought that the animatronics residing in her castle moving out would bring a sense of relief, but lately, she felt more stressed and on edge than ever.

"Hello?"

"Sorry, BB." Vanellope sighed as her friend drove her around; she never thought she'd be fine being the rider and not the driver, what with the lack of control that came with being a passenger. "Just been kinda in a funk lately."

"Hi?"

"I dunno... can't put my finger on it. I just feel on edge or something all the time."

Just then, Vanellope heard the sound of another engine approaching, glancing over to see Taffyta suddenly alongside her.

"Hey, it's about time you got back! We've been waiting all morning to get the roster race started!" She shouted.

"Taffyta, I told you I was going to be helping out at Ralph's game today... couldn't you just start the race?" Vanellope asked tiredly.

"Uh, no!" She answered. "You've been so busy with this whole 'new apartment complex' that you've been slacking off here! Get your head in the game! I'll meet you by the main track!" She exclaimed, speeding off ahead of them.

BB narrowed his eyes a bit. "Hi."

"Yeah, with a capital G..." Vanellope sighed. "All I want to do right now is crawl in bed and take a nap, can't those airheads do anything on their own?"

BB shrugged, driving Vanellope to the starting line where her kart was already waiting for her... along with all of Sugar Rush.

"Where the gumdrops have you been?" Gloyd asked as Vanellope weaved through the other children's karts to get to her own.

"With my friends." She grumbled, sticking her hands in her hoodie pocket.

"It's about time you got here!" She heard Minty call out to her. "Glad to see that you remember that you have a job!"

Vanellope's hands turned into small fists, choosing not to comment. Of course they notice that she's gone for a measly few minutes nowadays, since she was their rightful ruler... back then, they wouldn't have cared if she NEVER showed up.

"Hey, what's wrong, why do you look upset?" Candlehead tilted her head a bit as she observed Vanellope walking past.

The Sugar Rush president reached her kart, her hands slamming down on the rear spoiler. Her hands glitched involuntarily, causing the kart to pixel up. Everyone gasped and stared at Vanellope, who turned around and glared at all of them.

"What's wrong?" She repeated Candlehead's question angrily. "I'll tell you what's wrong! You think it's easy for me to keep this game under control? You think it's easy having all the stress associated with running this joint? All you diaper babies do is whine about every little miniscule thing, can't you take care of yourselves for once? You never needed me before, but now that I'm the actual leader again, you all need me to wipe your butts!"

"Hey, calm down, Vanellope…" Taffyta said as she put her driving goggles on her head. "No one is-"

"No one is WHAT? Criticizing me? I already know that's what you're all doing, talking about me behind my back, just like before!" She huffed a breath, hopping into her kart. "I don't need this, I'm outta here."

BB blinked as Vanellope floored her gas pedal, leaving a few tire marks on the track as she raced off towards her castle. Everyone was left murmuring to themselves, wondering why their president was being so irrational. BB swallowed a bit, choosing to go after his upset friend, bypassing the little marshmallow men who were racing to clean up the track again.


	2. Mental Dragging

Inside the castle, the ghost children were helping Toys Freddy and Bonnie make accessories and a veil for Toy Chica. The yellow animatronic had never felt happier, Clyde having proposed to her a few weeks ago and had a ring fashioned to fit one of her fingers perfectly. All was going well until Vanellope stormed in, spooking a couple of the ghost children until they realized it was their friend. When she entered her bedroom and slammed the door, they all glanced at each other quizzically, wondering what could be the matter.

Inside her bedroom, Vanellope curled up in her bed, snuggling her cupcake plush toy to her chest. After some time, she held it out so she could look at it.

"They don't like me, Cupcake... I know it. And the nightmares don't help... it probably just freaks them out more." She sighed lightly, frowning. "If they had a choice they would probably make Taffyta their president." The cupcake could not answer of course, only staring vacantly into Vanellope's eyes with its own button ones. The little girl sighed, curling up with it as she stared out her window, letting out a small yawn. "Maybe I'll feel better after a nap.."

Mike sighed, having joined Foxy and Springtrap on a bench. As he watched the ducks, he straightened up a bit.

"I wouldn't mind being one of them. Everything for them is so simple. Nothing to worry about, nothing to be afraid of. They just swim around, eat some bread, and live their happy little lives." Mike said. He glanced over to see Jeremy heading over to them. He stood up, opening his mouth to speak when he was cut off by Jeremy calling out Foxy's name. He closed his mouth, slowly sitting back down next to Springtrap.

Foxy blinked upon hearing his name, glancing over at Mike for a moment before he got up and headed over to Jeremy. Springtrap heaved a mechanical-sounding sigh, lifting one of his fingers up to pat a curious duck on the head as gently as possible.

"Probably has something to do with Mangle's make-over." Mike mused out loud, resting his chin in one hand, not really noticing much around him. "Guess he didn't want to show ME."

Springtrap said something to Mike, covering his mouth when it came out in a loud screech. He groaned, covering his eyes and shaking his head.

After wincing, Mike pat his shoulder. "It's okay, I know you mean well. I asked Jeremy if he could help you out after he finishes up with Mangle."

"Mike!" Calhoun shouted, approaching him. Mike blinked when he noticed she was out of her usual outfit, wearing jeans and a tee shirt, with one of Felix's caps on her head. "I could use your help, Dunderson is about as helpful as a log."

Mike smiled lightly at the thought of Bobby, who was more than likely just as ready to get away from Calhoun as she was ready to get away from HIM. "No problem." He said, getting up and dusting off his pants. "Hang in there, Springtrap, it'll get better."

At least... he HOPED it got better. He sighed as he glanced over at and then away from where Jeremy was, feeling pretty bad about their last conversation. He shook his head, following Calhoun over to where she needed him.

"Mike, my main bromigo!" Bobby shouted as they approached, slinging his arm around the former security guard's shoulders. "I never see you anymore, man! You've got to get on the party scene more often!"

"Buzz off, Dunderson, you and I both are relieved of your incomplete duties!" Calhoun said, marching back over towards the partially constructed buildings.

"Man, she seriously needs to learn how to live a little, am I right man? Hey, when this place is finished, we should totally throw a HUGE party here! You've been pretty down in the dumps, my man! We've got to get all you guys out of this funk!" Bobby exclaimed. "Hey, my girl and I are gonna be chilling at DDR tonight, you should totally come with!"

Mike bit his lip. "I don't know, Bobby... I- I appreciate the offer, but... things have just been a little rough for me."

"When I go through a rough period, I party HARD, bro. Sometimes, amazing things can happen when you just let yourself go..." Bobby nodded to himself. "Like that night I met Lady Gogo... man, she's something else."

"But you party all the time, whether you feel happy or not." Mike said.

"See? You're getting it already! Party time equals good times, bromigo. Come on down to DDR tonight, I know you won't regret it!" Bobby pat Mike's back.

"Dunderson! It's bad enough you get easily distracted, stop distracting Mike and let the man help me out here!" Calhoun shouted.

"Alright, alright, I'm ditching the joint, Cap. Mike!" He clicked his tongue while pointing his index fingers at him. "Maybe drag Jer Bear down to the dance floor too, he needs to loosen up a bit too!" He said before jogging off. "Lady baby, your party king's coming at you!"

Calhoun pinched the bridge of her nose. "I swear, I don't know how I don't give that kid a 'game over.'" She said as Mike came over, helping her with some lumber. "By the way... have you seen princess cavity around? She was doing great this morning glitching some bolts up here, and then Foxy needed her for something."

"Sorry, I haven't seen her around." Mike admitted, gritting his teeth as he strained to lower the pile of lumber to the ground. "I'll probably see her when I head home, since I live in the castle and all."

Calhoun nodded, observing the young man for a moment. "Hey, everything okay? You seem a bit off."

"What do you mean?" Mike sighed, knowing Calhoun was not a fool. "Okay, you're right, things are... rough."

Calhoun thanked him as she took a piece, setting it in place before using the power drill to secure one side. "Need a pair of ears? I noticed you've been going to those meetings with Ralph. It takes a lot to seek help when you need it."

Mike sighed. "I'm just having trouble moving on. Everyone seems to just... be okay with everything... from the Freddy games, I mean. But me, for some reason... I'm stuck. Why did things happen the way they happened? Is the past really in the past? Can it sneak up at any time? You can't just let go of something that bad."

Calhoun secured the other side of the piece before placing the power drill down. "Back stories are tough to deal with sometimes, Mike. Especially because we have no control over them. Yours is exceptionally harrowing. You just have to remember that who you are in your back story isn't who you are outside of gameplay, soldier." She took another piece of lumber to set next to the first piece.

"I know your backstory isn't the greatest either... I just wish I could get on with my life like everything else... but something is just holding me back. It's like the door is right there, but it's missing the handle or something. I can't get past it." Mike said.

"Keep going to those meetings... you'll figure it out. Wreck-it over there is a living example." Calhoun said.

"Yeah, he's been a great friend." Mike said quietly, rubbing his neck. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Foxy trying to help Mangle learn how to walk on two back legs with humorous results in the background, with Jeremy trying to help the best he could from the side.

Calhoun smirked a bit. "You and Fitzgerald have a spat?"

Mike winced at his friend's intuitive skills, his stomach knotting up. "How did you guess that?"

"Like I couldn't help but notice you two awkwardly making it a point to NOT be around each other." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"It's just that... he's adjusting well to our after-Freddy's life and I'm... not." Mike frowned, his shoulders slumped. "He thinks I should just get over it already and move on, and he doesn't get that I can't do that. Not right now..."

"Everyone handles life events differently." Calhoun nodded in understanding. "I'm sure it still bothers him, but if not dwelling on it works for him, then can't fault him for that. And there's nothing wrong with how you're handling it either. There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to things like this."

"I guess..."

"Hey, you two will be back to doing... whatever it is you two do in no time, okay?" Calhoun gave him a friendly, light punch in the shoulder. "All right, let's call it a day, shall we? Thanks for the help."

"No problem." Mike smiled. "And thanks for listening."

"Always got time for a friend."

* * *

Her breathing began to quicken, her heart pounding as the whispering grew louder in her ears. She could see it at the end of the long hallway, her cupcake plush toy, gasping as she tripped and fell a mere few feet away from it.

'They will always resent you, Vanellope. One day, they will try to ruin you, just like before.'

After the plush toy spoke, Vanellope felt cold, metallic hands grab her. Her eyes widened when she was met with the terrifying sight of her fellow Sugar Rush racers; they were manifested as animatronic versions of themselves, their glowing eyes burning into hers as they bore layers of razor sharp teeth. She tried to glitch away, but she panicked when she felt something click around her waist, a glitch proof lock. Vanellope struggled against them to no avail, the horrific racers dragging her around the corner to reveal an even scarier sight. At the end of this hall was a giant, menacing King Turbug, he too manifested as an animatronic whose roaring and screeching pierced Vanellope's eardrums. His teeth were even larger, sharper, his mouth open gaping wide as his gigantic claws pulled at the long rug to make Vanellope's imminent doom come quicker. Vanellope could no longer hear her own hysterical screaming over the animatronic racers and the King Turbug, flailing her arms and legs as she was hoisted right into the mouth of the monstrosity. She began to feel intense pressure on her head, her pleas for help unanswered as the frightening agony seemed to last forever.

That forever ended when she opened her eyes, jolting awake so severely that she practically flung herself onto the floor. Clinging to her cupcake plush toy, her fingernails dug into the wall to wall carpet as she crawled to the nearest corner. Her throat was dry, her voice already straining from the screaming she did not yet hear herself making. When she was finally able to register sound again, her screaming ceased, the traumatized child trembling as she stared at nothing in particular.

Even when BB came running in and started to shake her shoulders, she did not respond. Beginning to "cry" himself, BB turned in time to see Mike nearly slip and fall as he skidded into the room, his eyes wide with panic.

"What is it, what's wrong? Vanellope, what happened?!" He frantically asked as he kneeled down beside both children, gently petting the candy-haired girl's disheveled hair.

After a few moments, Vanellope finally came to fully, glancing over at Mike as her breathing became more steady. "Mike..." She spoke barely above a whisper. "... I had another nightmare."

BB tilted his head, his eyelids closing for a moment as he became more concerned. "Hello..."

"I know, BB... it just won't stop... every time, I... I can't get away, and I can actually feel myself being grinded up like a cookie or something..." Vanellope hugged her cupcake plush tighter to her chest. "I'm scared, Mike. I'm so tired..." She rubbed her eyes. "I'm having trouble focusing on racing again... I just don't get it! Surge Protector said there aren't going to be any more Freddy games plugged in, and all of the animatronics here are my pals... why am I still having nightmares? They're getting scarier..."

Mike sighed sadly, tucking some of Vanellope's hair behind her ears. "We went through a series of traumatic experiences... and since you're a kid, what we went through took the most toll on you. Stuff like this doesn't go away overnight."

Vanellope sniffled, her puffy eyes looking into Mike's like a begging puppy. "What about you?"

"I... I don't get nightmares every night... sometimes I go weeks without having one." He admitted to her. "Most of my problem is while I'm awake. At least when I'm asleep, I'm not busy wondering about my backstory and how I could have been such a monster..."

"But you're not a monster, Mike... you're one of my best friends. I mean, all of the ghost kids like you even after what happened in the back story... doesn't that say something?" Vanellope asked.

BB stood up when he heard someone approaching, Sour Bill hurrying into the room with worry in his expression.

"Miss president, I heard you were in distress... is everything alright?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay now, Billy... I just had another nightmare." Vanellope said.

"Oh dear... should I arrange for you to see Dr. Mario again?" Sour Bill asked.

Vanellope groaned. "Sour Bill, how many times do I have to tell you? He's going to give me the same spiel as always and he's going to try to give me those giant anti-crazy pills! I'm not crazy, okay?"

Sour Bill wrung his jellybean hands together. "Y- Yes, Miss President. Sorry, I was just worried about you. You seem so tense lately."

"Gee, someone else complaining about me, take a number and step in line." Vanellope grumbled, crossing her arms and letting her head tiredly flop against Mike's stomach while he rubbed her back.

"It's okay, Bill, I can handle it." Mike smiled lightly. Sour Bill nodded with a frown, looking worried as he headed back to his own bed. Mike sighed down at the little girl. "Van, snapping at everyone won't help." he told her, remembering how he'd snapped at Jeremy earlier. The two still weren't on speaking terms, much to Mike's dismay. "Trust me..."

"Well everyone else doesn't have a problem snapping at me... that rotten Taffyta... all that talk about being sorry and wanting to be friends is a bunch of marshmallow fluff!" Vanellope crossed her arms.

Mike thought for a moment. "Maybe you just need a change of scenery... Calhoun was saying how they're going to start moving the animatronics into some of the finished apartments in Felix's game. I'm sure they would let you stay there for a little while if you think it may help you feel better."

Vanellope looked up at him. "Maybe I do need a little vacation... I need to clear the gobstoppers out of my noggin."

Mike chuckled lightly, ruffling her hair. "You want to go over there now and see how it's coming along?"

"Like RIGHT now?" She asked with a tilted head. "While everyone's asleep?"

Mike shrugged. "Why not? Besides, there's no construction going on right now, so night time is the best time to visit."

"Man... how long was I asleep?" Vanellope shook her head. "The sun was still up when I went to sleep."

"It's been a while... Ralph and I wondered where you went." Mike said.

"Sorry... say, did Jeremy finish rearranging Mangle? BB said she was really excited about it... kinda nervous too." Vanellope said.

Mike shifted his eyes away for a moment, looking sad. "I guess he did... I saw him and Foxy trying to help her walk earlier."

Vanellope frowned a bit. "You didn't want to help? I thought you guys were buds."

"We are, we... we kinda had a fight." Mike sighed. "Don't worry about it, it's... nothing."

"If it were nothing, it wouldn't be bothering you." Vanellope said.

"Yeah, you're right." He admitted in a mumble, running a hand through his hair. "Maybe I need a break too."


	3. Reliving Nightmares

Vanellope went around her room, packing a few things for herself and BB before exiting the castle with Mike. She glanced over at the distant sound of motors roaring, hearing Taffyta announce the winners of the roster race for that evening. She sighed to herself, slinging her back pack over her shoulder as she made her way to the terminal. Once the three arrived at Fix it Felix Jr., they headed over to the partially constructed apartment building to go inside, finding a vacant room where Mike helped Vanellope set up.

"Hi?" BB asked.

"I dunno, BB... maybe I should just stay in here by myself, I don't want to wake you up screaming in the middle of the night... besides, Ralph told me once that you and I can't have a sleepover without an adult around." Vanellope said.

"Hello?" BB tilted his head.

"I have no idea, it's some weird grown-up thing..." Vanellope rolled her eyes.

Mike couldn't help but chuckle at that, shaking his head lightly. "You think you'll be okay for the night? If you need anyone, here are the room arrangements... until all the apartments are finished, we have animatronics sort of sharing rooms for now. Golden Freddy and Springtrap are over there, Mangle and Chica are over there, Freddy and Toy Freddy are next to them, Bonnie and Toy Bonnie are in the one at the end of the hall, the Puppet and Foxy are in the room right next to yours, and I think there's enough room in theirs to squeeze BB in. Puppet prefers sleeping in boxes to beds."

"What about Toy Chica?" Vanellope asked.

"She's staying in Clyde's game... now that they're engaged, they're pretty serious about living together." Mike said.

"And what about the ghost kids?" Vanellope asked.

"Well... we couldn't figure out where to put them, so they each set up a small area for themselves in the closet of each room. They're kind of bummed that they have to be separated, but they understand this is only temporary." Mike said.

Vanellope frowned at the idea of the ghost kids being separated, almost wishing they would all have a sleepover with her. She didn't want to bother them with her nightmares either though, so the thought vanished. "Gotcha." She nodded after listening to what Mike said. "So... you guys heading back to the castle now?"

Mike sighed. "I guess... with Jeremy and I on bad terms, bunking with him is out of the question... Bobby isn't an option either, being he and his girlfriend are pretty much inseparable. I don't want to be a third wheel, you know?"

"Sorry…" Vanellope frowned. "Must've been pretty bad for you and Jeremy to still be upset like this at each other."

"We just have different opinions about something, it happens." He shrugged, trying to act like it didn't bother him. "Maybe it'll be better in the morning."

"Mornings do make things better, I guess." She agreed, a little smile growing on her face before she let out a yawn. "Man, I can't believe I'm tired even after that long nap I took. These nightmares must really be draining me."

"Just try to relax. I know it's a bit of an oxymoron almost, but you have the animatronics here if you get scared or need help. BB will be with Foxy in the room right next door. And I think even Jeremy would help you if you needed anything. He's got a cot set up in his shed." Mike said.

Vanellope scuffed her shoe on the floor. "I wish you could stay nearby too... I trust you."

Mike sighed. He wondered if leaving Vanellope alone was for the best... he put his back pack down, smiling lightly. "Maybe I should just stay for the first night... just for good measure."

The little girl's mood instantly brightened, glitching over to her friend and tackling him with a hug. "Would ya really? Pleeeease…?" She begged him with a wide, toothy grin.

Mike chuckled, ruffling her hair a bit. "How can I say no to that face?" He joked, giving her a little hug back.

"This is gonna be great! Our very first sleepover in the new place! We can watch movies and eat junk and read your favorite comics!" Vanellope exclaimed happily.

A warm smile graced Mike's face, especially when she hugged her cupcake toy. It was the one he had given her, and to him, it was a symbol of how far their friendship had come. He was happy to see Vanellope acting a bit like herself in this moment, all of her fears and doubts melting away. If he had to endure the possibility of watching over her for a night to ensure it remained this way, he felt it would be more than worth it.

Meanwhile, Jeremy flopped onto his cot, exhausted from the day. Since their last ordeal, he had taken to help the animatronics feel better about themselves and fit in with the community. He had already completed many small projects of which each were very grateful for; the first was making and attaching new hands for Chica, as well as giving her new jaw joints so she could move her head a bit better. After that, he had made a whole new face for Bonnie; like Mangle, he refused to show himself in public, fearing his faceless appearance would frighten others. He used the first Freddy's game as a reference to create and attach a new face for him. He also helped Toy Chica secure her beak and eyes; she was extremely self-conscious about keeping her appearance up for Clyde, and was always humiliated when her beak or eyeballs fell off her face. Not that it mattered to the Pacman ghost, he thought she was beautiful either way. Mangle, however, had been his most extensive and complicated project yet, and took extreme care to make sure she was happy.

Jeremy remembered how much he'd panicked when he had first become homeless. He had thought being a game avatar was his main purpose in life and without it, what point was there in being alive? Thankfully, he had friends to help him out, mostly Mike and Mangle. He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling of his shed, his hands folded behind his head to cushion it. It had actually been Mike's idea for him to do little projects for the animatronics, since he had done a lot of do-it-yourself maintenance when his game had been plugged in. And now, he was the go-to guy when it came to things that Felix wasn't able to fix; Felix's hammer couldn't create what wasn't already there after all.

"Jackass…" Jeremy scolded himself in a whisper. He still felt horrible about his and Mike's earlier quarrel, especially since Mike tried to make amends that were not accepted. Jeremy groaned in frustration at himself, rolling over this way and that to try and sleep to no avail. What if he and Mike never talked to each other again? All because Jeremy was too stubborn for his own good? He didn't think he could handle life without Mike around.

Unable to take the restlessness anymore, he growled lowly to himself, flipping the sheets off of him as he dragged himself off of his cot. He went to the terminal, taking it to GCS before entering Sugar Rush. He took a deep breath, approaching the large, pink castle and knocking at the front door. After a minute or two, it opened, Sour Bill yawning as he held one of his jelly bean shaped hands over his mouth.

"Yes?" He asked in his usual monotonous tone.

"Do you know if Mike is still awake?" Jeremy asked, deciding to just get straight to the point. "I need to speak with him."

"No idea, he left about an hour ago to stay the night at the new housing development in Fix it Felix Jr." Sour Bill replied.

"He went- oh, you've got to be kidding me! I came all the way here for nothing!" Jeremy groaned, rubbing his face.

"And you woke me up for nothing too... I'm going to go back to bed, you should too." Sour Bill said, slamming the door in his face.

"Little green son of a..." Jeremy heaved a sigh, throwing his hands up. "Well, let me go back then..."

* * *

Mike slowly blinked his eyes open, groaning as he sat up. It took a moment for his vision to clear, but when it did, he immediately realized something:

He was not on the same room that he fell asleep in.

Glancing around, he became more alert as he took in his surroundings. It somehow seemed familiar, but before he could think on it for too long, he heard something shifting on the bed. He sat up, kicking away his sleeping bag before realizing it was Vanellope. She too was looking around, and he deduced she was aware of the new surroundings.

But wait... if this was a dream... what was she doing here?

"Mike?" Vanellope yawned sleepily, stretching her arms above her head. "Did we sleep so hard that everyone decorated the room around us?"

"I don't think so." Mike said with a hint of worry in his voice, standing up now and heading over to her. "Hey, pinch me."

Vanellope wrinkled her nose and raised a brow at him. "Huh? What are you, crazy?"

"Just do it." He practically begged her, holding his arm out in front of him.

The little girl shrugged, rolling her eyes a bit. "If you say so, but I don't wanna hear any crying out of ya." She reached up and pinched his extended arm right below the elbow, making Mike wince.

"It's not a dream." He said under his breath, rubbing his arm where a slight red mark was appearing.

Vanellope hugged her cupcake plush a bit tighter, biting her lip. "Where are we, anyway?" She glanced over, grabbing a flashlight that was on the side bed table and turning it on to see better.

"There's an IV pole there..." Mike remarked, getting to his feet to take a closer look.

It was then that an ear piercing shriek filled the room.

Mike whirled around, gasping in horror when he saw three little... well, they looked like Freddy, but they were horrifying. Their mouths hung open to reveal razor sharp teeth, twitching visibly as they seemed to appear out of thin air. As Vanellope tried to scramble away from them, they grabbed her, Mike flinging himself onto the bed in an attempt to grab her. However, the small nightmare Freddys moved inhumanly fast, seeming to fly back and disappear into the back corner of the bed. Vanellope's scream was cut off, having been dragged with her.

"Shit! Vanellope! Vanellope!" Mike screamed, scrambling for the flashlight she dropped, his breathing heavy as his eyes darted around the room.

As he searched the room in a panic, he whirled around when he heard a sound coming from the double door closet.

_Be careful, Mike..._

The voice seemed to whisper to him, yet it filled the entire room. His breathing quickened as he approached the closet, biting his lip as he placed his hands on the handles. After taking in a deep breath, he flung the doors open, releasing the breath when he only saw a small Foxy plush toy inside. He sighed with relief, leaving the doors slightly ajar when he thought he heard the sound of a voice outside the left door. His eyes widened, thinking that he heard Jeremy. He strode briskly over to the door, flinging it open.

He instantly regretted that.

A horrifying Bonnie animatronic roared in his face, claws digging into the walls as he tried to shove him back. Razor sharp teeth snapped at him, threatening to slice through his skin before he finally managed to shove the door shut, gasping for air as he locked it.

"Jeremy?!" Mike cried, the sound of his friend's voice sounding more distant now, as if it were and echo. "Jeremy, where are you?!"

Jeremy had no clue that his friend was calling for him because he couldn't hear him, completely unaware of what both Mike and Vanellope were going through on the other side of the door in their dream states. Heck, he didn't even know if he was at the right apartment or not when he had wiggled the locked door knob a few times. Jeremy sighed in an exaggerated fashion, resting his forehead against the door in defeat.

"This is the only one I hadn't checked yet, so it's gotta be this one." He reasoned tiredly, straightening up and rubbing his eyes awake. "Damn, I go through all this trouble to apologize and he doesn't even show his face."

Mike bit his lip, backing up once again towards the bed. "Vanellope?" He called out, worried sick for her as he began to search under the pillows. He noticed the analog clock on the side table blinking oddly, a bit warped. He leaned in to take a closer look, perplexed by this. Just then, he felt something bite his leg, howling in pain. He whipped his head to look behind him, not believing what he was seeing. Vanellope's cupcake plush was sinking its teeth into Mike's ankle, trying to drag him under the covers. As he scrambled to get away, he gasped when he noticed under the blankets was no bed; it was a black void, his eyes widening as a large alternate version of Freddy, black with a gold hat and tie, opened his mouth gaping wide. His clawed hands threatened to slice through Mike if he came near, but Mike was in no mood to die today. He clawed at the mattress, dragging himself towards the edge of the covers, reaching for the flashlight at the end. When he finally managed to pull himself out from under the covers, he once again gasped for air when he quickly grabbed the flashlight, whirling around as he noticed the cupcake was itself again. Its vacant eyes seemed to stare right through him. He heard deep laughter in his mind, gasping when he heard the closet rattling from the inside. Not about to wait for something else to pounce out at him, he broke into a sprint as he scrambled off the bed, tripping over himself as he bounded out the right door, slamming it behind him. Shakily holding his flashlight, the sound of crying hit his ears, pointing the light towards the sound. When he saw it was Vanellope, his heart skipped a beat, a degree of relief washing over him. "Thank codes, I found you..." He breathed.

Vanellope uncurled herself, hopping to her feet at the sound of Mike's voice. "Mike?! You're here!" She beamed, smiling at him.

Their moment of relief was broken, then, when something came into Mike's line of vision, the flashlight shining on it as it moved to stand right behind her. "Vanellope!" Mike screamed, pointing behind her.

Before Vanellope could run, she whirled around, screaming as a nightmarish version of Chica grabbed her, dragging her away into the darkness. Mike did not hesitate to sprint towards them, the hallway becoming dark until he saw a lone window. He looked back, shining his flashlight around. He panicked when he saw that the way he had come from had vanished, now just a black void. He whimpered lightly, about to call out for Vanellope again when he felt claws digging into his legs. He hissed, shining his flashlight down to see several little nightmare plushtraps tugging on his legs. He bit his lip, grunting as he tried to kick them off of him. When it failed, his heart pounded as he felt himself being dragged down, crying out as he went into free fall. When he landed on something soft, he realized he was back where he started, on the mattress in the bedroom. The sound of choking got his attention, grabbing the flashlight and clicking it on. He saw Vanellope on the floor, holding her throat as she gagged. Mike gasped, hopping down to assess the situation.

"Mike..." She squeaked out. "... cake..."

"What? What did you say?" Mike heard rattling inside the closet once again, going over and checking inside. He could hear Vanellope wheezing behind him, glancing back upon seeing there was still just a small Foxy plush inside. He closed the double doors slightly, turning to her and sighing. "It was nothing... are you okay? Do you need me to pat your back?"

"I'm okay now..." Vanellope said. "Was just... that scary Chica shoved a cupcake down my throat."

Mike shook his head. "Jeez, what a b-"

"MIKE!" Vanellope shouted, pointing towards him.

The young man whirled around just in time to see nightmare Foxy's head poke out from the closet, his razor sharp teeth glistening in the low light as he snapped his jaws at him. Mike used both his hands to slam the closet doors, trying to shove the horrifying Foxy back inside. The flashlight rolled back, Vanellope grabbing it and holding it shakily up to point at Mike. When he finally succeeded in subduing Foxy, he turned, pressing his back against the closet as he was on the verge of tears. "I knew something was going to pop out of there! How in the hell do we get out of here?!"

"I don't know..." Vanellope cried, her face already tear stained. She furrowed a brow then, shining the light up on the bed to see her cupcake plush there.

"W- Wait Vanellope, don't!" Mike cried.

"What?" She asked, taking the toy and holding it to her chest. When nothing happened, Mike heaved a sigh of relief.

"Nothing..." He took a moment to finally collect his thoughts. "Did you see Jeremy here?"

"No..." Vanellope answered. "Is he here?"

"I thought he was... maybe I was just imagining it." Mike said. He then noticed something, blinking when the analog clock on the side bed table began to glow a bit brighter. "Hey, Vanellope?"

"Yeah?" She turned, noticing the clock as well. "Do you think we can use this to get out of here?"

"Only one way to find out..." Mike replied.


	4. Sinister Influencing

As Mike and Vanellope's dream-selves reached for the clock, Jeremy continued being completely oblivious to their dilemma on the other side of the door. He had been pacing back and forth, practicing what he was going to say as an apology, sometimes shaking his head if something sounded stupid.

"Okay, look, Mike, so you got some issues. That's fine, I mean, so do I. And if your way of coping with it is to obsess over it all the time, then so be it. And I sound like a huge ass..." Jeremy groaned as he lightly bumped his fist against his forehead. "All right, start over. Um... Mike, I know I said you need to just get over what happened to you and I'm a huge jerk for saying that. I still get upset when I think about our backstory too, I just don't think it should affect our future, y'know? Like why can't we just be happy in the here and now? Plus it kinda kills me seeing you all sad and stuff." He admitted in a sigh. "I mean, you've always been the one to kinda pick ME up when I'm down, and then I turn around and act like an insensitive jerk to you. Which isn't cool... because I actually care a lot, I- I'm just not good at showing it. Seeing you all down in the dumps over something that didn't technically happen just makes me... it makes me hate our creator, which is horrible, but I hate that you got created to be some psycho's little toy like that. I just want you to be happy..." As soon as he finished saying that, a blood-curdling duo of screams rang through the air, startling Jeremy out of his train of thought. "Holy... MIKE?!" He yelled, knowing that scream anywhere. He pounded on the door, even rammed it with his shoulder. "Mike? Vanellope, you in there?"

The door flung open then, Vanellope stopping short when she saw Jeremy standing there. "Jeremy! We had some... weird nightmare thing! We were able to get back, but that Golden Freddy nightmare thing got Mike right when I was finishing with the clock to make it turn to six! He..." Vanellope's voice quieted then, still visibly shaken. "He had chomped on Mike's head... he's still flipping out..." Vanellope said, pointing over to where Mike was shaking, muttering incoherent phrases to himself in a fetal position.

Jeremy blinked as he tried to make sense of what Vanellope was telling him, all of it sounding like nonsense to him. The second he laid eyes on Mike, he snapped out of it, practically diving to the floor and nearly skinning his knees up as he slid against the floor.

"Mike?!" He yelled in a panic, his eyes reflecting fear and worry. He grabbed Mike's shoulders and flipped him onto his back, shaking him a bit. "Wake up, it was just a dream, snap out of it!"

Vanellope whimpered as Mike kept on making inaudible words, his eyes glassed over as if he were not truly there. Jeremy grit his teeth, his eyes watering up. He resisted the urge to slap Mike's face to wake him up, thinking that would make it worse somehow.

"Mike, it's Jeremy." He said in a calm, yet strained voice. "I- It's me, Jer Bear. Remember? C'mon, man, I need you to focus and wake up now. It's safe now."

Suddenly, Mike's eyes returned to their normal hue, his pupils dilating to the size of pinpricks. Vanellope jumped back with a gasp when Mike suddenly sat forward, screaming his head off and covering his face with his clawed hands. Jeremy startled back a bit as well, his face falling when Mike started crying.

"Mikey, you... you okay?" He said quietly, then sucked in a sharp breath of air when Mike unexpectedly crushed him in a hug. Jeremy could feel him shaking violently, almost as if he were a scared child. "Calm down, it'll be okay," he shushed him gently, worming his arms loose from Mike's enveloping grip so he could give him a comforting hug back.

"Jer..." Mike finally spoke, still trembling a bit. "... it... it wasn't just the... it... it was like this has happened before... all of these fears... I felt helpless, I felt my sanity being torn out of my head, it..." His voice faded, chills traveling down his spine.

"I don't get it... there are no more games, and all of the animatronics are our friends now. Why are we still having nightmares?" Vanellope whined.

"Because we're the ones that Phone Guy messed with the most, is my guess." Mike said as he eased up on hugging Jeremy, sighing and sitting back a bit. His eyes still weren't focusing on either of his friend's, his mind still reflecting on what he'd seen.

"I'm so sick of this, why can't everything just be normal already?" Vanellope frowned, going over to give Mike a hug. "I don't want to live like this forever."

"We won't." Mike assured her, petting her head. "We'll figure it out, like always."

Jeremy cleared his throat, rubbing his neck. "You guys had a shared nightmare? That's wild..."

"We were in this weird bedroom... there was an IV in there, medication... some toys... but those animatronics... the worst I've ever seen them. I still feel dizzy..." Mike breathed.

"Okay... how about we just... you guys should try to just get some rest. I'll stick around here and we can try to figure all of this out in the morning." Jeremy said.

"Good idea, but what if we have more nightmares?" Vanellope asked.

"I'll be here to wake you up." Jeremy said. "We're going to nip this in the bud."

"I hope so…" The little girl yawned, curling back up in the bed and pulling the covers up to her chin. The cupcake plush was being hugged tightly to her chest. "Would be nice to get a good night sleep for once."

Jeremy glanced at Mike worriedly. "Hey, I'm... I'm sorry about how I was earlier." He began, feeling nervous. It was always easier to merely PRETEND he was talking to Mike than it was to actually talk to him sometimes. "I was a huge jerk."

"It's okay..." Mike replied.

Jeremy shook his head, his fists clenching up. "No, it's not." He insisted firmly, a lump in his throat. "I shouldn't have made you feel like what you're going through isn't important, or that I don't care about you. I should've just shut up and been there for you. It just makes me sick that Phone Guy is still screwin' around with your head..."

"Jer..."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I made you have nightmares again, I'll never forgive myself if that's-" His eyes got huge when Mike's hand reached over and squeezed one of his, his face turning red.

"You don't give me nightmares, Jer, promise." Mike said kindly. "Those would've happened regardless, I think. And I know you care... I care about you too."

Jeremy sat there in a state of mild shock, not blinking again until Mike removed his hand from his. "Thanks for showing up and for offering to stay awake." Mike smiled at him as he stood up from the floor, reaching down to rub Jeremy's hat against his skull.

"Uh... y- yeah, no problem," Jeremy stuttered a bit, self-consciously fixing his hair back under his hat.

"What are you guys blabbing about, I'm tryin' to sleep…" Vanellope muttered tiredly from the bed.

Jeremy sighed in defeat, looking back at Mike. "She's right, we should just... we can talk about this more in the morning."

Mike smiled lightly. "Good idea. Thanks, Jeremy." Mike pat his shoulder, turning over to curl up in his sleeping bag on the floor. Jeremy exhaled slowly, sitting up against the bed as he watched his friend sleep. He could only wonder the horrors that had played out in his and Vanellope's mind, and cursed himself for being helpless to stop it. Though he managed to get some sleep, his security guard instincts caused him to crack an eye open throughout the course of the night. He was not going to allow his friends to suffer so long as he was around.

* * *

The next morning, Vanellope groaned as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. She glanced over, sighing a bit as she poked at Jeremy's head. "Hey... wake up, I'm hungry."

Jeremy immediately popped awake, jerking to an upright position as he glanced around in a panic, his fists up in a defensive posture. "Back off, you evil little-" He sighed and rubbed his eyes, groaning when he saw it was only Vanellope. "Geez, you scared the living crap out of me!"

Vanellope giggled behind her hand. "Sorry."

"Please don't ever scare me awake again, that makes me have flashbacks to my old game…" Jeremy pleaded with her tiredly, yawning.

Mike blinked his eyes open then, rubbing them a bit as he sat up. "Morning already? Huh... I actually feel kind of rested..."

"Good. Well, let's get something to eat, I guess." Jeremy said, getting up and stretching his back. He shuffled over to the door, turning the knob to open it. As soon as he did, he was immediately met with the sight of Springtrap. The animatronic, having gone to check up on the guys from hearing some commotion the night before, meant to ask them if they were okay.

Instead, it came out in his signature screech.

Needless to say, Vanellope's little poke was nothing in comparison to this, and Jeremy screamed on the top of his lungs from the sudden assault on his ears. He scrambled back, knocking Mike back as the two fell into a heap on the ground. Unlike them in that current moment, Vanellope thought this was humorous, rolling around on the bed as she burst into a fit of laughter.

"Man, too bad we didn't have a security camera for THAT!" She exclaimed.

"Long as you mean a bite of food and not a bite of US." Jeremy muttered under his breath, still embarrassed.

They took the terminal to GCS, heading into Sugar Rush. As they made their way to Vanellope's castle, she glanced over when she noticed Gloyd approaching her.

"Hey, Vanellope... are you um... doing okay?" He asked.

"Rough night." Vanellope responded, hugging her cupcake a bit tighter. "Look, I'm gonna go in, I'm starving."

"Okay... by the way, Taffyta was hoping she could talk to you later today." Gloyd said as Vanellope walked away.

"I'm sure she does..." Vanellope muttered, heading inside the castle with Mike, Jeremy and Springtrap.

Once inside, Vanellope made a dash to the dining hall, sitting down. She kicked her legs back and forth as they hung over the edge of the chair, huffing impatiently as she rested her head back against the chair. Jeremy sat across from her, Mike volunteering to get some food from the kitchen.

"Hey, are you okay? You haven't stayed still since you woke up." Jeremy asked.

"Well why don't you have a nightmare every night and see if you can stand still? I keep telling everyone I'm starving!" Vanellope exclaimed.

Jeremy blinked at her outburst, not accustomed to Vanellope being so moody. He narrowed his eyes at her after he got over the shock, feeling offended. "I've had my share of nightmares before, thank you very much. Multiples a night, even. If it wasn't for Mike and Mangle, I'd probably still be having them."

Before Vanellope could say anything else, she placed the cupcake plush in her lap, nearly grabbing the plate of pancakes from Mike as he set it down in front of her. He gave Jeremy a plate and had one for himself. They immediately noticed the child beginning to stuff food in her face as if she had not had food in days.

"Wow, slow down before you game over via choking." Mike chuckled as he sat down.

"I'll just regenerate anyway..." Vanellope mumbled with a mouth full of food, still feeling annoyed.

As she kept stuffing her face, she would reach over to grab more pancakes off of the platter, Jeremy furrowing his brows.

"Alright, that's enough, Van... Van. Vanellope!" Jeremy exclaimed, about to pull the platter away when Vanellope grabbed it, the cupcake plush tucked under one arm as she dashed down the hall with it. "What is her problem?!"

Springtrap declined from offering his thoughts, not wanting to startle Jeremy again.

"I'll go check on her... she may still be a bit rattled from the nightmares." Mike said, walking down the hallway towards her room. "Hey, Vanellope? Come on, this isn't cool." When she didn't answer him, her eyes a bit crazed as she still stuffed her face, Mike sighed as he approached her. "Vanellope, this is getting a bit out of hand-" He gasped suddenly when in one swift motion, she grabbed her bedside lamp, hurling it towards him. It just missed him, Mike holding his chest as he reeled back in shock. Vanellope stopped, realizing what she did as her whole demeanor changed.

"Mike, I... I'm sorry!" She held her hands to her chest, her eyes wide now, a bit scared.

Mike exhaled sharply, wiping his forehead in relief. "Geez, that's some arm, Van, you sure you weren't coded to be a baseball player too?" He tried to joke, though he was rather shaken up that the little girl had just reacted violently towards him.

Vanellope's face scrunched up in a deep frown, her eyes visibly pooling with tears which soon fell down her cheeks. Her bottom lip pouted out and she started to cry, her whole body shaking. "I'm s- sorry, Mike, I- I didn't mean to..."

"Hey, it's okay, just... come here." Mike bent down, hugging Vanellope close. "I know it's been rough, but everything's going to be okay."

Vanellope sighed lightly. "I think I just need a minute..."

"I wish I could figure out why we had that nightmare... then maybe we could finally be free to move on with our lives."

"Me too... you should go back with Jeremy, I think I need to make sure I don't go off like a fruit gusher again." Vanellope said.

"Yeah, what exactly happened back there? You guys seemed fine when I left..."

Vanellope rubbed at her arm, looking down. "I dunno... I kinda-maybe snapped at him about having nightmares, and it made him all grouchy... I think he thought I was saying that he didn't understand how it feels or something..."

"Ohhhh boy." Mike sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sure he'll get over it, I'll talk to him if he's still upset. Don't worry about it."

"Okay..." Vanellope bit her lip.

"If you need me, give a shout out." Mike said, getting up and heading out of the room. He sighed, plopping down next to Jeremy. "I'm worried about her." He said after a few moments.

Jeremy swallowed the remains of his breakfast, having been sitting silent by Springtrap this whole time. "Yeah what the heck was that about? I've never seen that kid get so hostile before."

"She's just sensitive and touchy because of what's going on." Mike explained. He smirked lightly and elbowed Jeremy in the ribs. "Surely you can understand THAT, Mr. Grumpy Jer Bear."

Jeremy rolled his eyes and scoffed, an annoyed smile on his face. "Yeah yeah, I just hope you two bounce back to normal soon."

Mike nodded. "We will. She's a strong kid. She's just been through a lot, you know? Sometimes when something that bad happens to a kid... it takes them a while to bounce back. If they bounce back at all." He said as he downed a glass of milk.

Meanwhile, as Vanellope tried to rest her eyes, she heard the sound of an airy breath. She blinked her eyes open, rubbing them as she tiredly glanced around the room. When she detected nothing, she turned over, slowly closing her eyes again. When she heard her name being whispered, she became more alert, flying into an upright position as she looked around the room more carefully. She heard her name being whispered again, realizing the sound was now more concentrated, closer to her. She looked down, her eyes widening when she realized what the source of the sound was.

"... Cupcake?" She asked quietly, holding the plush up to look at it. After a few moments of silence, she made a face. "Probably just imagining it." She said to herself. Just then however, she jumped a bit when it blinked at her, her own eyes staring at what she believed she just saw.

'Hello?'

"It was you!" She exclaimed, sitting up more.

'Shh... the others can't hear. They can't know.'

Vanellope nodded. "Have you been able to talk this whole time?"

'Not really. I've been hearing everything you tell me, Vanellope. I'm going to help you.'

"How?" She asked.

'You'll see in time. Or, well, you won't see, actually... the nightmares will go away. You won't be afraid anymore. Just promise you'll keep this a secret. The others won't understand.'

"Okay, I will... boy, this is awesome, cupcake!" Vanellope beamed, hugging the toy plush to her. Hopping off the bed, she headed into the dining hall. "Hey, um... I'm feeling better!"

Jeremy glanced over at Mike, lightly gesturing towards Vanellope. "What was that you were saying about kids taking a while to bounce back?"

"You sure you're okay?" Mike asked her with a worried expression.

Vanellope nodded. "I'm going to go talk to the other racers and BB." She said, skipping out of the castle as if nothing had happened. When she went to the track, she stopped when she noticed Taffyta, Candlehead and Rancis laughing it up with BB and the ghost children. She glanced down at her cupcake plush for a moment before approaching them. "Hey... Gloyd said you needed to talk to me about something."

Gloyd flinched upon hearing his president's voice, taking his pumpkin hat off and fixing his messy hair down as she approached. "Oh, h- hi, Vanellope, are you feeling better?" He asked, not wanting her to fly off the handle again.

"Yeah, I'm fine, what's up?" Vanellope asked.

"W- Well, I, I- I mean WE were just wondering if maybe you wanted to uh..." Gloyd stammered.

Taffyta rolled her eyes at Gloyd's nervousness. "Oh for gum's sake, we're all having a bonfire later with marshmallows and wanted to know if you wanted to come."

Vanellope blinked. "Oh, um... sure." She replied, gulping a bit. "Marshmallows sound good, actually... making my mouth water." She giggled. "So... how's the racing been going?"

"Fine. BB and the ghost kids have been helping out a lot while you've been away." Taffyta answered. "They're actually pretty cool."

Vanellope's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Wait, you guys can actually understand him?" She felt a little jealous that she and BB could no longer have special, private conversations; at the same time, she was also glad that his limited vocabulary no longer seemed to prove a hindrance in his wanting to socialize with others.

"Uh, yeah, it's not that complicated. Besides, I've been around him enough in the last few days to learn quickly. Running this game isn't so hard, Vanellope. You know, I think you should make me your vice president. I'm doing more than a good job around here." Taffyta said.

Paranoia flooded Vanellope's senses, taking a step back. "You never offered to help before... you're just saying that because you want to show everyone you're better than me and take the game over for yourself!"

Taffyta blinked before snickering, shaking her head. "Jeez, who do you think I am, King Candy? I'm not a monster. Look, Vanellope, there are just some things you're better off forgetting."

"Forget what exactly?" Vanellope asked suspiciously, her demeanor growing darker by the second. "Is there something I need to know? Or did I know it before and you helped make me forget it already!"

"Vanellope, will you calm down? I mean all of the bad things we all did to you in the past... listen, I know it's not a great excuse that we had no idea what you were but how many times do I have to apologize? It's in the past, just move on!" Taffyta exclaimed.

The ghost children huddled around then, frowning at the escalating situation. They each wore a different colored glow stick given to them by Bobby, avoiding the color purple for obvious reasons. It helped to better identify them, each named by him also based on the first letter of each color.

"Oh, please don't fight..." Rancis groaned as he rubbed his temples.

"Oh sure, I'll just gleefully move on from all those years of being treated like dirt!" Vanellope's voice rose louder the more she talked. "Because it was in the past, and I should just forget everything that happened because it's not important anymore!"

"Woah, woah, hey!" Ralph frowned as he approached, Foxy with him. He gently moved Vanellope aside with a hand, glancing between the cherubic children. "There a problem here?"

"Yeah, I should know by now that any friends I have don't have candy-themed names!" She shouted, storming off. "I'm gonna help Bobby and Felix with the apartments!"

"Um, okay?" Ralph muttered to himself as he scratched his chin in confusion.

"Ralph, we promise we weren't bullying her!" Taffyta spoke up then. She knew Ralph wasn't that bad of a guy, but she also knew that he would likely lose his cool if he suspected his best friend being treated badly again. "I- I just mentioned that I would be a good vice-president and help her do her duties around here, and she totally flipped!"

Ralph sighed. "Okay, just take it easy on her. She's been having a rough time, so... she's probably just a bit sensitive right now."


	5. Taking Control

Vanellope hopped onto the terminal, huffing angrily. As it drove into the dark tunnel, she sat the cupcake plush into her lap. She glanced down as it began to whisper to her, blinking a bit. When she looked up, she noticed that the lights at each passing interval in the tunnel had been replaced by birthday candles, the train slowing down as she looked all around her. She slowly looked back down at the plush, furrowing her brows.

"What in the gumdrops is going on, cupcake?" She asked.

'They're going to try to take your authority away, Vanellope. The racers... Taffyta especially. And she's going to make sure that all your friends hate you.'

"No..." Vanellope whined. "That will never happen!"

'Don't put anything past her. She's starting right now.'

"I don't want to be alone again..." Vanellope said quietly.

'Then we have to stop her. Only you and I can.'

"How?" She asked.

'... let's play a game.' The cupcake suggested.

"Okay..." Vanellope answered. "How do we play?"

'It's not too hard. Just try not to scream, alright?'

Before Vanellope could ask more, she gasped when the terminal blasted forward at incredible speed, the large birthday candles going past her in a blur. Wind whipped through her hair as she tried to grip onto anything she could, afraid she was going to fly out of the train. Her eyes widened, breathing quickly as her cupcake began to levitate in front of her. Its eyes bore into hers, the flames from the candles beginning to swirl around her and turn a deep shade of purple. When the plush began to grow a mouth, opening it wide to reveal sharp teeth, Vanellope screamed, her mouth wide open as the purple flames collected behind the cupcake and above its head, igniting its candle. The flames dove down as she breathed them in, her throat feeling like it was burning. As she gasped for air, she could no longer scream as the cupcake lunged forward, her vision becoming black as she passed out.

Felix whistled a happy tune as he placed a line of bricks onto the pre-existing wall, using his hammer to meld them together as a permanent fixture. He wiped his brow and smiled at the progress he and the others were making, ecstatic to be making a difference.

"Ugh, Bobby! I broke a nail!" Gogo whined lightly.

"Stop being such a baby and just help him with that lumber!" Calhoun shouted, using her power drill to secure some more two by fours. "Finally, this side is done. Let's get some of that plywood up here so we can get this sub-wall finished!"

"Sarge! Sergent!" Kohut called, running up to the partially built apartment complex.

"Can't you see I'm occupied here, soldier?" Calhoun groaned.

"I apologize m'am, but this is an emergency! The junior president of Sugar Rush was found severely coding just inside the terminal! I brought her back to our game for treatment!" Kohut shouted.

Calhoun's stern face quickly melted into one of horror. "Vanellope?" She shoved past Kohut, yelling for Felix to follow her. "That kid better be all right..."

Once the two reached her game, Calhoun sighed with relief upon seeing Vanellope was awake and sitting up. She looked over when they walked in, wanting to hop off the cot but was stopped by one of the soldiers.

"I already told you, I'm okay..." Vanellope said, looking up at Calhoun when she and Felix approached. "Hey, sorry these guys are making such a big deal, I kept telling them I'm fine! I just passed out on the train."

"You sure about that?" Calhoun asked as she approached. "I heard you were glitching up like crazy earlier."

Vanellope frowned a bit. "I just had another nightmare. Nothing too serious." She hugged her cupcake plush. "I was on my way to help you guys with the apartments... if we keep hanging out here they're not gonna get done." She said, the soldier finally allowing the child to hop off the cot.

"You had a nightmare in the middle of the day while you were awake?" Calhoun asked with a raised brow, her arms crossed. "You sure that's the story you wanna tell?"

"It was!" Vanellope held her hands out. "Why don't you believe me?"

"I'm not saying that you didn't see or experience anything, kiddo, but that's just not how nightmares work…" Calhoun said.

"Can we just get out of here? It's kind of stuffy." Vanellope asked, tugging a bit on her hoodie's collar.

"You sure you don't need to rest or get looked over?" Felix offered gently.

"Nah, I'm good! Come on, we have apartments to finish!" Vanellope said, strolling out of the room.

The couple exchanged glances, both of them simultaneously wondering what was going on with their young friend.

"We should keep an eye on her." Calhoun whispered to her husband as they followed Vanellope out of Hero's Duty.

When Vanellope reached the apartments, she smiled as she waved over to Bobby. "Hey, Bobby!" She pouted when she got no response. "Jeez, can you stop being all gushy with your girlfriend for two seconds?"

"Ah, youth…" Bobby sighed with an amused expression. "If only you could age like human kids, then I could say that you'd understand one day."

Vanellope tilted her head, confused at what he meant by all that.

"Hey, maybe Vanellope can finiish our work so we can go chill out, babe." Gogo said, smiling. "She's got endless energy."

"Uh, I dunno, the Cap might not like me pawning off work on a little kid." Bobby chuckled nervously.

"Bobbyyy..." Gogo whined. "This work stuff every day is driving me crazy! I want to sing and party with you, not do this building stuff!"

"Hey, these animatronics have been waiting patiently to have their own homes!" Vanellope exclaimed. "If you don't like, then take a hike!"

The couple blinked at Vanellope, surprised that she had spoken like that. "Van, c'mon, I didn't mean it like that." The diva said quietly, feeling a little bad now. "I just miss spending time with my boyfriend, that's all."

Vanellope made a face, grabbing the bucket of nails from Bobby and a hammer Gogo was holding. "Fine. I'll go up and work while you hang out." She glitched up the roof, biting her lip as she started to try to hammer the nails in.

Bobby frowned, ushering his girlfriend away as they silently headed off somewhere private. "Wonder what's eatin' her? She's usually so happy."

"I dunno, but at least we can ditch this joint." She smiled, kissing Bobby's cheek.

As Vanellope was hammering a nail in, she suddenly stopped when she heard an odd sound. She looked around, before she heard a familiar voice.

'Hello?'

"Cupcake?" Vanellope replied.

'I think it's time we played another game.'

"I don't want to play a game like that again... it was too scary." Vanellope frowned.

'But it will help to stop the nightmares. That is what you want, right?'

"Yeah... what do I have to do?" Vanellope asked.

'If you can hear the sound of the crying from the first floor, go down and follow it. I've brought a certain friend to help us.'

"Okay." Vanellope glitched down to the ground, going up to the first floor door to go inside.

Meanwhile, Ralph stretched his arms as they reached Fix-it-Felix Jr., Mike and Jeremy with him. "Thanks for volunteering to help out, Mike." Ralph said. "By the way, is Mangle all finished with her new makeover thing?" He asked Jeremy.

"Not quite." Jeremy replied. "I have to finish the exterior coating so she won't be uh... for lack of a better word, naked." He cleared his throat behind his fist, not feeling comfortable talking about someone he thought of as a sister in this way. "You know, like with her endoskeleton showing."

"Ohhh gotcha." Ralph said in understanding. "I'm sure she's really excited though."

"I bet Foxy will be too…" Mike chuckled.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Oh please, I don't wanna hear about Mangle being sought after like that. It's weird."

"Gee, I bet she'd be thrilled if YOU ever got with someone!" Ralph dared to tease the easily flustered ex-guard.

"Shut up already!" Jeremy pulled his hat down over his eyes.

As they headed towards the apartments, Ralph noticed Bobby and Gogo heading in the direction of the terminal.

"Hey, taking a break?" He asked them. "Not that you don't take enough of them…"

"Yeah bro, my girl's getting totally over all this building stuff. We're gonna go grab some sodas and just chill." Bobby said.

"Have fun…" Jeremy mumbled, rolling his eyes as he continued forward. "Mangle's already in my shed, I don't want to keep her waiting. Give a shout out if you need me."

"Okay." Mike smiled a bit. "Hey, Jer?"

"Hm?" Jeremy raised a brow.

"… I'm glad we're on good terms again." Mike said a bit quieter.

Jeremy smiled at that. "Me too."

Inside the building, Vanellope wandered the empty halls. It had basic blue wall to wall carpeting and tan colored walls with mounted lights placed every few feet. After some time, Vanellope bit her lip as she became a bit impatient.

"Cupcake, this game is kind of boring…" She said.

'Don't worry, just go around this corner, and you'll find our friend.'

Vanellope nodded, peeking around the corner. She blinked, not seeing anything or anyone at first. She decided to venture a bit further, thinking maybe they were a bit farther along. After she took a few steps however, the lights flickered as she heard someone pounding on one of the doors from the inside. When the lights returned, she saw someone, a child a bit older than her, standing at the end of the hall; however, their face was concealed by a Foxy themed mask.

'This is where the game really starts, Vanellope. Pay close attention… if you really want to forget all the nightmares, you will follow in our friend's footsteps. Just remember… try not to scream.'

The pounding on the third door to the left grew louder, almost as if the pounding was coming from in Vanellope's head. The lights flickered again as the boy at the end of the hall began to run towards her. When he ran past the door where the pounding was coming from, the lights flickered again. When they turned back on, it was no longer the boy with the Foxy mask running towards her. Vanellope gasped, falling as she scrambled backwards as nightmare Foxy lunged towards her, hitting the wall as she yanked her hoodie over her head. She smacked her hands over her mouth, shutting her eyes tightly as her screaming became muffled. When nothing happened after a few moments, she slowly opened her eyes, cautiously getting to her feet. When she decided it was safe, she took off her hood, looking down at the cupcake plush.

"I screamed." Was all she said for the moment.

'No, Vanellope. You did really well. You covered your mouth, you suppressed it. That's the first step. You'll be seeing our friend again very soon.'

Just then, Vanellope looked up as Mike appeared at the end of the hall, striding quickly towards her. "Hey… we were looking all over for you, Bobby said you were on the roof…" He sighed. "Ralph is not happy, he and Calhoun have both told you not to go up there by yourself."

Vanellope heaved a sigh. "I really don't wanna be lectured right now. I wouldn't have to if Bobby and his dumb girlfriend would just do their job."

Mike had to chuckle at that. "Well, that's how people are when they like each other or get in relationships, they think only the other person is important and just want to spend a lot of time with them." He paused reflectively before clearing his throat. "Anyway, just because someone's not doing their job, that doesn't mean you get to pull dangerous stunts like being on the roof, okay?"

"Trust me, I can handle it." Vanellope said, stuffing her cupcake plush into her pocket. When they walked back outside, BB was waiting for her, waddling forward to hold Vanellope's hand.

"Hello?"

"I'm okay, just... a little stressed out lately I guess." Vanellope replied.

"Hi..."

Vanellope sighed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you earlier with all my screaming."

As they headed out, Mike paused for a moment when he thought he saw a light flickering near him. When nothing else happened, he shrugged it off and dismissed the small occurrence.

* * *

"Hold still, Mangle." Jeremy said as he carefully drilled the chest plate into its new home.

Mangle tried hard not to move, but she was so excited that she had to force herself to stay still. At last, she would look like her fellow animatronics and be a finished product instead of a destroyed, crippled assortment of random parts.

Jeremy wiped his brow with the back of his forearm, putting the drill down. "Okay, stand back and spin around in a circle so I can see if I need to adjust anything."

Mangle rolled her eyes, a new feat made possible by having two fully functional eyes instead of just one, but she did as she was told.

"You look fine to me." Jeremy answered her when she asked how she looked. It was his turn to roll his eyes when she grumbled something else. "Yes, I think Foxy will think you look fine too. Go check yourself out in the mirror."

Mangle ignored the dry remark, skipping over to the full-length mirror best she could with her new bulky frame. The white fox tilted her head at her reflection, observing herself. Jeremy swallowed, hoping she liked everything. He tried to make all the paint match her face, and even struggled to make her new eye the same color as the old one.

"Well... do YOU like it?" He asked her, knowing her opinion was the one that really mattered.

Before getting a verbal reply, Jeremy was suddenly and unexpectedly scooped up in a tight hug, his now much taller friend holding him several inches off the ground. "You're welcome," he smiled in response to a purring noise she made, giving her a hug back. "Glad I was able to do this for ya."

Mangle gently placed Jeremy back on the ground, rubbing his head with one of her hands. "Nah, that's okay, you don't have to pay me back," he told her. He gave her a flat look then. "No, I do not need help with Mike, thank you. Yes, I'm sure, now go find Foxy, why don't ya?"

She made a noise that resembled a chuckle, shoving his hat over his face before he could do it himself, and then ran off to find the male pirate fox.

When Calhoun and Felix had gotten back to his game, she went on a tirade when she found out what had happened during her absence. She told Mike to walk Vanellope and BB back to Sugar Rush, the young girl beyond frustrated as she decided to occupy herself with tuning up her kart. BB helped her out, Vanellope huffing with annoyance.

"I just don't get why everyone thinks I'm such a screw up." Vanellope said. "Maybe if they weren't all such airheads, things would be better! I should run that joint, I'd have everything done five times better and faster than all of them!" Vanellope threw some of her tools in her bag, getting up and dusting herself off.

"Hello..." BB said in a worried tone.

"Well maybe they should start acting like my friends then!" She snapped, blinking a bit as she staggered for a moment. She furrowed her brows, holding her head for a moment. "BB, I don't know what's wrong with me..." She whimpered lightly. "I feel so angry all the time and I don't know why... I think I'm going bananas!"

"Hi..." BB grumbled worriedly, waddling up to her to give her a hug. Vanellope hugged him back, sighing shakily.

As this was happening, Candlehead was walking by and noticed Vanellope's cupcake plush sitting near the hood of her kart. She looked up at her candle for a moment, giggling as she went over without Vanellope realizing. She scooped up the plush toy, giggling as she skipped around and twirled in circles. When Vanellope turned to finish up and put her plush toy back in her pocket, her eyes widened in a panic, her hands groping at the air and ground in a desperate attempt to locate it.

"BB, I can't find my cupcake... it was just here, you have to help me find it!" Vanellope exclaimed, close to tears. BB was shocked by her sudden distress, but helped her look around the kart nonetheless.

Vanellope saw something out of the corner of her eye then, doing a double take when she saw Candlehead showing Taffyta the cupcake plush. Vanellope froze for a moment, standing up slowly as her spine went rigid. She clenched her teeth for a moment, anger boiling up in her again.

"CANDLEHEAD!" Vanellope screamed.

Both girl racers turned towards Vanellope's voice, a bit taken aback by her tone. "Oh, hey Vanellope! I was showing Taffyta how your toy looks like me!"

"Give it back, Candlehead, right now!" Vanellope shouted as she marched towards them.

"Jeez, chill Van, she was just borrowing it for a second." Taffyta said.

"The cupcake is mine, give it back!" Vanellope screamed louder, only a few feet from them now.

Candlehead pouted. "Come on, can't I borrow it for one more minute-"

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY CUPCAKE!" Vanellope exploded into ear piercing shrieking as she grabbed for her cupcake, Taffyta crying out in shock as she wrestled the toy from Candlehead.

"Hey, stop it!" Taffyta tried to pull Vanellope back, only to get elbowed hard as she fell to the ground.

She gasped as Candlehead began to cry loudly, Vanellope shoving her back and trying to claw at her. Never before had Taffyta seen her act so violently, getting to her feet as she ran to find Mike. In the meantime, Candlehead muffled her crying as she covered her face, screaming fearfully and begging for someone to help. Vanellope's eyes were crazed, growling and shrieking as she continued to attack. The commotion attracted other racers, seeing what was happening as they also ran for help. A few minutes later, a fearful Taffyta returned quickly with Mike following behind.

Mike grabbed Vanellope at her armpits, effectively yanking her off of the frightened Candlehead. "Vanellope, stop! What are you doing, stop!"

Vanellope continued to scream and thrash around, clawing the air with her arms and kicking her legs. The other racers looked on with horror as Taffyta and Snowanna helped a hysterical Candlehead to her feet. Vanellope began to glitch drastically, the racers gasping as they saw flickers of purple pixels every now and then. As Mike struggled to control her, she twisted herself around almost against the laws of physics, scowling darkly.

"Little brats always get what they deserve!" She screamed, Mike having to hold her away from him as she tried to claw at his face.

"None of us did anything to you, you're out of control!" Taffyta shouted.

"It wasn't my fault!" Vanellope's voice began to distort. "Always crying, but it was me who suffered! It's me! IT'S MEEEEE!" She gasped then as her eyes crossed, glitching horribly as she seized. When she finally quieted, her eyelids were closed, but fluttering a bit as she emitted incoherent mumbling.

"For the love of-!" Mike exclaimed, snatching Vanellope up without hesitation and running as fast as his legs could carry him. "HELP! Code damn it, help!"


	6. Festering Hostility

Mike sat inside the screening room as Calhoun monitored the computer screen closely. "Felix, you can go back. The hammer tap didn't make much of a difference."

Felix nodded silently, patting Mike's shoulder as he slowly walked out. The former security guard was sitting hunched over in a chair, running a hand through his hair as he sat up.

"I've never seen her act like this." He said, his voice cracking as he ran his hands down his tear stained face. He glanced over when quick footsteps stopped outside the door, Jeremy appearing in the doorway.

"Before you ask, no. You can't see her. She's going to be in there for a while, at least until tomorrow in case things get worse." Calhoun exhaled sharply. "I don't get it. Whatever this is, it isn't a virus. So the theory of her picking something up from one of the unplugged games is out the window."

"Mike, you okay?" Jeremy asked in a quiet, worried tone. He absolutely hated Mike not being his usual happy self.

Mike didn't bother answering, just shook his head as he exhaled shakily, some more tears running down his face.

"Dumb question." Jeremy muttered to himself, swallowing down a nervous lump in his throat. "H- Hey, c'mon, sitting here isn't gonna do any good. You wanna go get some fresh air or something, clear your head? Oh and I-I finished Mangle up today too, I'm sure she'd love you to-"

"You want me to abandon one of my best friends in her time of need?" Mike suddenly growled, his mood switching almost instantaneously. "What if it was YOU lying in there, would you want me ditching you too?"

Jeremy blinked at the mood shift, then he self-consciously rubbed at one of his wrists in a shy gesture. "Of course not. I- I just thought-"

"Where is she?!" Ralph suddenly bellowed as he almost literally crashed into the room. "Sorry, Surge Protector wouldn't grant my code access into the game until he was done with his stupid interrogation, but I'm here now." He glanced around at everyone, furrowing a brow. "Did I interrupt something?"

Jeremy felt like the world's biggest idiot, pulling his hat down before stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I'll come back later..." He sighed as he turned to walk off, his stomach twisting in knots as he replayed what Mike told him.

Mike rubbed at his eyes, groaning at himself. "Jeremy, come back, I... damn it. I don't know what got into me..."

"Did I miss something?" Ralph wanted to know. He was eager to visit his young friend, but he didn't want to leave Mike alone if he needed to talk about something.

"Nothing, just me being an idiot..."

Calhoun went over, plucking the cupcake plush from Mike and running it under the scanner. "Nothing with this either... but something is definitely up. Viruses will show up, phantom codes won't. If this does have something to do with-" She stopped when the lights began to flicker a bit, glancing up at them. She placed the plush down, walking over to her equipment and fiddling with it a bit.

As the seconds passed, the lights began to flicker more, airy whispers filling the air as the monitors began to warp and distort. Ralph gasped lightly, nudging Mike and pointing at the monitor that displayed security camera in Vanellope's isolation room. The footage began to twist and skew, shapes of teeth being made out as it showed static. When the outline of a cupcake was briefly seen, Ralph slowly looked to the plush sitting in the room with them. Calhoun took a step back, looking around at everything and shaking her head with unease.

Mike heard the sound of sobbing then, looking over as the lights continued to deteriorate more. As they flashed, his eyes widened as he saw glimpses of a child in the room, the sobbing growing louder as the airy, sharp whispers came to a crescendo. In a moment, the lights and equipment stabilized, returning to normal as if nothing had happened. Ralph glanced down however as Mike began to hyperventilate, the vision of the child horrifying him.

"D- Did you see that...?" Mike whispered.

"I just saw a whole lot Mike, and none of it is good. This computer system is a tank so something is really screwy around here and I'm gonna find out what it is!" Calhoun shouted.

"It was me..." Mike breathed. "I- I saw a kid, he... was crying... it was... how... I don't remember..." Mike gripped his head, beginning to shake.

"What do you mean, it's you?" Ralph asked him in confusion. "You having some kind of flashback?"

"It could be a repressed memory of sorts." Calhoun offered as she stroked her chin in thought. "Maybe you've always been programmed with your backstory and just forgot it until recently."

"But I don't even really remember anything!" Mike shouted in distress, shaking all over still. "It's like a haze over my brain or something... ugh, why am I going through this? Why is all the stuff happening?"

"Back stories are a funny thing, soldier. I think you should also stay the night, Mike... you and Vanellope seem to, again, be in the thick of all the trouble." Calhoun said.

In the isolation room, Vanellope slowly opened her eyes, rubbing them. She sat up, seeing she was in a standard bed, looking around at the white, empty walls enclosing her in the room. Realization hit her then, feeling around her and looking under her sheets in a slight panic.

"Hey... Calhoun, she's awake." Ralph said, pointing to the monitor where they could see Vanellope. They watched as she hopped off the bed, looking under and searching around the room.

"She's looking for something." Calhoun said, glancing at the cupcake plush which seemed to stare at them ominously. "Mike... hang onto that. Make sure it doesn't get back into Vanellope's hands."

Vanellope gasped for air as she began to cry, hugging herself. She glanced over when she thought she saw something, standing up and turning around to see the crying child in the room with her.

Mike widened his eyes. "Look! There he- I- look!"

Calhoun shook her head, furrowing a brow. "What are you talking about? All I see is Vanellope."

"I- It's clear as the nose on my face!" Mike exclaimed.

Calhoun narrowed her eyes. "Whatever it is, Vanellope sees it too. Look at her."

Vanellope gulped a bit as she took a step closer. "Are you the kid from the apartments?"

'Hello...?'

Venellope jumped, looking all around. "Cupcake?"

Calhoun narrowed her eyes as she watched the screen. "Son of a gun... she's talking to something."

'I think it's time for a new game. You see that I've brought our friend back?'

Vanellope nodded. "I don't want to be in here... I want my toy. This reminds me of the Fungeon."

'Don't worry, you'll be out of here soon enough. Hopefully you can do better than our friend did.'

The lights flickered for a moment, and when they turned back on, the crying child had vanished. Vanellope looked all around, stopping when she heard the child crying from under the bed. As she took a step closer, the lights flickered a second time. When they turned back on, Vanellope gasped as she began to breathe heavily. She found herself in a small storage room, shelves on the walls which held animatronic spare parts and mascot heads: those of Golden Freddy and Springtrap. The crying child was now pounding on the door, begging to be let out. She could hear deep, sinister laughter from the outside of the locked door, approaching the child when a sound stopped her. She glanced back, biting her lip as she whimpered. A pair of eyes slowly illuminated, Vanellope backing up as the spare parts slowly came to life. They began to crawl and drag themselves off the shelves, the mascot heads rolling off as they closed in around her.

"Get away! Get away from me!" Vanellope shouted, grabbing one of the spare parts and trying to whack the others away. She growled angrily until one of the mascot heads bit her hand, Vanellope crying out as she nursed her hand. She suddenly felt the door at her back, turning and trying to open it to no avail. "Let me out!" She screamed, the crying child no longer there as she pounded on it. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

As Calhoun, Ralph and Mike watched Vanellope's bizarre behavior, the sergeant clenched her teeth. "I have never seen anything like this."

"We've got to go in there and help her!" Ralph exclaimed.

"Absolutely not. She's too dangerous." Calhoun replied.

"Are you crazy?! She's a KID!" Ralph shouted.

Mike pressed his hands against his head, feeling as if it were in a vice. "She needs HELP, dammit, she doesn't need to be treated like a-... a freak or a criminal!"

As they were bickering, Calhoun looked at the monitor and noticed Vanellope was no longer anywhere to be seen. "Where did she go?" She furrowed her brows, quickly glancing in the other monitors. Just then, low breathing was heard from Vanellope's monitor, the three of them horrified when they realized she was on the wall, her face suddenly right into the camera.

"Hello, Mike." Vanellope spoke darkly, a smirking sinisterly. "Are you gonna cry some more? You're nothing but a big baby! And big babies never get to grow up..." The screen suddenly went blank, all of them realizing she had somehow disabled the camera in her room.

"To the isolation room, now!" Calhoun shouted.

"Sounds like something Phone Guy would say." Ralph said as the trio ran down the hall. "You think maybe his code attached to hers somehow in that last Freddy's game we were in?"

"Too soon to say." Calhoun said, though she kept the idea locked away for future pondering. "Hopefully this is just a case of her own coding going haywire."

Calhoun typed in the pass code to the keypad next to the door, opening it into the isolation room. She stepped inside first, Ralph squeezing in behind her followed by Mike. Calhoun took out a taser gun, her eyes scanning the room. She noticed Vanellope was now curled back up in bed, not making a peep. She looked to the one corner of the room, going up to the camera lying on the ground. She looked up for a moment as she knelt down, glancing back at the other two.

"This is impossible... this thing was bolted to that metal plate up there, how in the hell was she able to rip this thing out?" Calhoun asked.

"Someone else must have done it." Ralph said.

"No one else was in this room, and we clearly saw her on the wall right in front of the camera. It had to have been her, but... how..." Calhoun sighed.

Worry for his friend was eating Mike alive, the young man stepping forward a few steps. "Vanellope? Hey, it's me, Mike... what's going on, huh? You feeling a little better now?"

She rolled over slowly towards him, her stare empty as she looked up at him without saying anything.

"Um... I'll take that as a 'no.'" Mike said, repressing a shudder at her chilling stare.

"Where... is my cupcake...?" She finally asked lowly.

"Not anywhere that you'll be getting your hands on it." Calhoun said, approaching her and Mike. When she got close enough, Vanellope flew up into an upright position, opening her mouth wide as she spewed what seemed to be purple frosting that shot out several feet in front of her. Calhoun had yanked Mike away before they got sprayed, Vanellope backing up against the wall as her eyes seemed to stare through theirs. "Give it to me!"

"Vanellope, stand down or I'll taze you!" Calhoun shouted, holding up the taser gun.

"Calhoun, don't do this, she's just a kid!" Ralph pleaded.

Vanellope growled, lunging at the sergeant. Calhoun pulled the trigger, Vanellope screaming as she was tased. When she was knocked out, she quickly dropped the gun to check her vitals.

"Help me put the restraints on her. I'm not taking any chances until we figure out what in Sam Hill is going on here!" Calhoun frowned.

The idea of putting restraints on her made Ralph remember the time when he had busted Vanellope out of King Candy's fungeon; she had been imprisoned in a cell with chains all around her.

"Absolutely not!" Ralph demanded angrily, his eyes narrowed at the sergeant in a defiant manner. "No one, including you, is putting that kid in restraints!"

"Look, Wreck-It, I don't much care for the idea myself, but what choice do I have?" Calhoun barked with her arms thrown up. "She's danger to everyone around her AND to herself!"

Mike exhaled shakily, hugging himself a bit as some of Calhoun's crew helped her clean up and restrain Vanellope to her bed. As they were leaving, he slowly walked over, picking up her blanket and placing it on her to keep her warm. He then followed them out of the room, the door closing and locking behind them.

"Mike, I have a job for you." Calhoun said. "Take this cupcake and bring it back to your apartment. I'm posting Kohut outside your door. I want you to give me a detailed report of anything you experience overnight, understand? I need to know if this is posing any sort of threat."

Mike stared at the cupcake's creepy, blank stare and shuddered involuntarily. He used to think it was cute, but now it gave him the chills. "You really think this thing is the source of all the problems?"

"Only one way to find out, soldier. I'll make sure Kohut tells Fitzgerald to stay in the room next to you in case there's trouble." Calhoun said.

Mike sighed upon hearing that. "I don't know if he'd like that or not... not after snapping at him like did."

"Well, I'm not giving him a choice. I'll stay here and monitor Vanellope. Ralph, you and Felix are in charge of the apartment complex. If Dunderson gives you a hard time tomorrow, give him a good knock upside his head." Calhoun said. "Someone should also inform Sugar Rush that Vanellope will be out of commission for a while."

"I'll do it." Ralph offered in a grumbling tone, still upset at Calhoun's insistence that the young girl be imprisoned like this. "I think Mike's dealt with enough today."

"Agreed. Now go. I'll keep in touch if I need anything." Calhoun said.

Mike sighed in defeat, taking the cupcake as he headed for the apartments in Felix and Ralph's game. He honestly would have preferred heading back to his own room, a private suite in Vanellope's castle, after having that horrible nightmare. Calhoun was a very insistent person though, never taking 'no' for an answer, so he did as he was told.

The young man flopped on the provided bed, staring at the ceiling. He held up the cupcake toy above him, blowing his breath out before placing it lazily on the mattress beside him. His thoughts ran together, images from the nightmare and also from the security footage making his head spin. The crying child stood out the most, Mike feeling a strange sense of deja vu although he knew he had never in his programmed life been a child.

Maybe he was going crazy again, like when he had killed those children in his backstory. Mike hoped that wasn't the case; if he ever did anything to harm any of his friends here, he would surely give himself a game over. Getting depressed, Mike rolled over onto his side, his thoughts never giving him a moment's peace.


	7. Keys Unlocking

"I highly doubt Mike wants me around." Jeremy mumbled as Kohut marched him to the apartment next to the one Mike was staying in, which happened to belong to Foxy and BB. The two of them were going to be staying with Mangle in the workshop outside, the trio having a bit of family time. "Every time I suggest anything, he blows up at me... all I want to do is help but I always say the wrong thing and make it worse..."

"He's just going through some tough stuff." Kohut tried to assure him as he escorted Jeremy inside the now unoccupied apartment. "I know Sarge used to snap at us about literally everything until she and Felix got serious. Well, she STILL snaps at us every now and then, but that's in her code." He added with a chuckle. He patted the disheartened ex-guard on the back. "Don't take it so personally. Everything will go back to normal once this stuff gets dealt with."

"I hope so..." Jeremy replied.

"Look, if you need anything, just give a shout out. I'll be right outside this door. Have a good evening." Kohut said as he ushered Jeremy inside his room.

"Good evening, right." Jeremy huffed in slight annoyance.

Kohut sighed lightly, standing posted outside the door. "Hm… well, maybe I can just focus on my thoughts… not every day that I'm guarding something that's not actually dangerous and murderous…" Just then, Kohut heard an airy whisper from down the hall, raising a brow. "Hello? Is someone there?" When he heard a vase break, he narrowed his eyes, making his way down the hall. "Hey! State who you are!" He shouted, stopping to take out his gun when he turned the corner. All the animatronics staying in the building were ordered to stay in their rooms for the night for their safety, so Kohut wondered who it was that could be wandering around. He narrowed his eyes, seeing the broken vase in the hall. When the lights began to flicker, he looked around suspiciously. "Hey, who's messing with the lights? You pranksters better show yourselves right now!" Kohut furrowed his brows as he began to hallucinate, the room beginning to warp. He suddenly saw someone standing at the end of the hall, having a hard time looking at it clearly. It was a dark, shadowy shape, not answering any of Kohut's demands or questions. As its glowing eyes burned into his, it began to convulse violently as it levitated. "No… you were destroyed…"

Meanwhile, completely unaware of Kohut's situation, Mike blinked when he heard the door open and close from the next room over, hesitating for a moment. He then rolled over, grabbing the phone as his fingers jammed some buttons. He exhaled shakily, hoping that Jeremy would pick up.

"Holy-!" Jeremy cursed when he realized he was spooked over the phone ringing. "Who could be calling? Didn't even know animatronics used phones..." He grabbed the receiver, assuming the call was meant for Foxy. "Hey, Foxy isn't here, neither is BB, so try again tomor-"

"Jer, it's me... Mike..."

Jeremy's chest tightened, feeling as if Ralph were sitting on him. "Mike? Uh... h- hey, you... you doing okay over there?"

"Not really... hey, I'm sorry about biting your head off earlier... I know you were just trying to help." Mike rubbed at his face, suppressing a yawn. "Sorry about being so moody lately, too, I just got a lot going on in my head and it's making me crazy."

"I know." Jeremy frowned. "If there's something you need me to do, just tell me. I hate seeing you like this..."

"I saw something earlier." Mike decided to tell him, hoping that he would be believed. "Nobody saw it except for Vanellope and myself... Ralph and Calhoun probably think I've lost my bits."

"Kinda like that nightmare you guys had?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah but we were awake this time. I saw a little crying kid a- and there was teeth." Mike pressed a hand against his forehead, starting to hurt as he tried to remember. "I think the kid was me..."

Jeremy blinked at that, not sure what to think. "Why do you think that?"

"It seemed familiar... it felt like a memory, but I don't know what of. That doesn't sound stupid, does it?" Mike sighed.

"No no, not stupid…" Jeremy quickly said. "Okay, let's say that you did see yourself as a child. Why would you be having flashbacks of your backstory, one that you didn't even get programmed with? You didn't know anything about your past until Phone Guy told us, after all. I mean, Calhoun having flashbacks at least makes sense since her developer plugged them into her."

"Maybe I always had them downloaded into my code and they were suppressed until now." Mike sighed. "I just don't know what triggered them to wake up..."

"Mike... what happened to Vanellope? Is she okay?" Jeremy asked.

"I have no idea... but Jeremy... I think that these-... these memories have something to do with it. I think the only way we're going to be able to save her is if I figure out what all of it means." Mike ran a hand through his hair, jumping when he heard something. He glanced over, bending down when he realized it was a bottle of pills that had dropped to the floor. He furrowed a brow, picking it up and turning it, widening his eyes when he saw his name on the label.

"Mike? Are you okay?" Jeremy asked.

"This wasn't in here when-" He glanced over at the cupcake plush, the toy facing him with a vacant expression as the lights began to flicker. A loud, static noise sounded on the phone, much like the sound "nightmare" made. A few moments later, the line went dead.

"Mike? Mike?!" Jeremy shouted, breathing heavily as he pressed his ear against the left wall of his room before knocking on it. "Mike!"

In his room, Mike breathed quickly as he stared at the edge of his bed. He shook his head, his eyes wide as he pressed his back against the headboard. Sitting before him was what seemed to be Vanellope, only her head was bowed, her hood covering it.

'She's asleep now...' Dual voices spoke in his head, lifting her head and removing the hoodie to reveal a small Fredbear plush toy underneath, smiling eerily. '... but I'm always awake.' The plush stared at him with small, beady eyes, grinning to reveal sharp teeth. 'Everything you ever loved was twisted. The same is being done for her.' The lights flickered again, the plush disappearing upon the lights turning back on. He heard pounding to his right, hearing a small voice crying to be let out. He exhaled sharply, shakily crouching down on the floor to press his ear against the wall.

"... Jeremy?"

'... Please... let me out...' The small voice cried.

"Jeremy?! Jerem- AHHH!" Mike screamed as he felt himself being dragged into the darkness under his bed.

"Damn it!" Jeremy flew out of the apartment, skidding on his feet as he turned sharply to where the next door was. He grabbed the handle and twisted, having to catch himself before he tumbled onto his face in his hurried state. "MIKE?!" No one was in the room, at least not that he could see. "Mike, where are you?" Jeremy shouted, quickly searching the closet only to come up empty. He started having flashbacks of when Mike had disappeared in the third Freddy's game, and he had to bite his cheek to keep from panicking. His heart pounded so hard that it was the only thing he could hear other than his nervous panting, almost missing the one other sound that it was in the room. Jeremy jerked his head back towards the bed, bolting over to it and landing on his knees beside it. His eyes bulged out when he saw Mike under there, curled up in the fetal position and whimpering like a puppy. "Mike? Mike, what are you doing under there? C'mon, buddy, take my hand." Jeremy reached out for Mike's arm, only to pull it back when Mike started having spasms. Knowing he couldn't pull Mike out, Jeremy stood up and gritted his teeth, pushing the bed out of the way so that he could get to him easier. "Mike, snap out of it!" He pleaded, rolling Mike onto his back and patting his face. "Mike, PLEASE!"

Kohut gritted his teeth, the dark shadow having flown past him and darted straight for Mike's room. When he reached it, he saw Jeremy inside, having lost sight of the shadow. "Hey, you're not supposed to be in there!" Kohut shouted, about to storm in when the door slammed shut on its own, a crack appearing in it. The soldier whirled around when he heard something behind him, shaking his head when he saw the shadow propped up against the wall, convulsing inhumanly. He loaded his gun as the shadow began to rise, slowly but surely looming towards him.

As Jeremy tried to reach under the bed, Mike felt himself being pulled down, unable to break away as he glanced behind him. He screamed when the large, sharp teeth of nightmare Fredbear's head chomped up and down, gasping as he made it through unscathed. He no longer felt a force exerted on him, able to stand up in the middle of the darkness. He finally saw a light, the small, crying boy knelt down in the center of it as he cried. A small Fredbear plush was speaking to him.

'We are still your friends... do you believe that?' Mike gasped, feeling as if the ground was shaking under his feet. 'You are broken... I will put you back together.'

"And I will break you again and again!"

Mike whirled around at the sound of Purple Guy's voice, his breath hitching as he saw a box in the distance. He ran over, kneeling by it as he tried to pry it open. It was locked with two locks however, cursing under his breath when he heard Jeremy's voice in the distance. "Jeremy?" He grabbed the lock box, lugging it with him as he found himself running towards a light.

Under the bed, Mike gasped as he jumped, hissing when he hit his head on the underside of the bed. "Ugh, damn...! That really hurt..." Mike groaned, holding his head. "Mike... I... I found something... in my head..."

"Stop scaring me like that!" Jeremy yelled at him, shaking all over from his own fright. "You're really freaking me out!"

"I'm sorry... I saw the kid again, the one that I think is me... and I saw Purple Guy..." Mike said.

"You WHAT?" Jeremy gripped Mike's shoulders tightly. "What do you mean, you SAW him? Did he do anything to you? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, no... I... the box... Jeremy, I found a box, I think it might-"

Kohut burst in then. "You, OUT." He said to Jeremy, noticeably shaken up as he pointed his thumb towards the door. The shadow had disappeared as soon as Mike awakened from his vision.

Jeremy tensed up when Kohut entered the room, glaring at him in defiance. "Hell no, it was your boss's idea to stick me in a room by Mike in case he needed something and that's what I'm doing! Unlike you, showing up late for the party! Some help you are!"

"There's a lot of funny business going on here, and as per Sarge's orders, you must stay in that room there!" Kohut shouted.

"Jer, I don't want you to get in trouble..." He glanced at the cupcake plush warily.

"Well, screw her orders!" Jeremy growled, absolutely outraged at this conspiracy to keep them apart when Mike needed help the most. "And I don't want YOU going through another freak-out session alone!" He said to Mike. "What if you don't wake up or something next time? What if something actually happens to you in here? What am I supposed to do, just sit around and twiddle my thumbs and wait for this clown to show up a minute too late?"

Kohut went over, hoisting Jeremy up by the back of his shirt collar. "That's enough, say goodnight!" He dragged Jeremy out of the room, Mike sighing as he heard his friend screaming and protesting until Kohut locked him back in his room before locking Mike's door. Kohut sighed, the thought of his experience with the shadow making him shudder. Moments later, Jeremy's room phone rang, yanking it off the receiver to answer it.

"Listen, Jer... I think... something else happened in my childhood. Something after I was strangled but before I caused the bite of '87. I know this kid is me, I... I just feel like it is. Something traumatic happened that really started my downward spiral. I need to find out that it is." Mike said.

"Well how are you supposed to do that?" Jeremy wanted to know as he rubbed his neck where Kohut had grabbed him. "Force yourself to hallucinate some more?"

Mike looked thoughtful. "Maybe..."

"I was just joking, Mike! Don't actually do that!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"Well, I may not have a choice, actually." Mike sighed. "I saw... I found this lock box... a lot like the one King Candy had used to turn everyone in Sugar Rush against Vanellope. It has two locks on it. I think... I- I think that this may be the answer to everything I need to know. I don't know how to open it."

"A locked box? So it needs a key then." Jeremy said.

"Well, there's two... two locks. So two keys..." Mike sighed. "Where would I even find them?"

Jeremy paused to think. "Well... the question is who put the locks on it in the first place? They'd be the one with the keys."

Mike exhaled slowly. "Then I have an idea who that might be... I don't understand it. When are we finally going to be rid of this guy?" Mike bit his lip. "I have to see Vanellope tomorrow. You're not going to like this idea, but... it may be the only chance we have."

"Are you guys gonna trigger the shared dream thing again?" Jeremy asked.

"There has to be a way I can reach out to Vanellope. And if that means that... I start getting all weird like she's been then I'm willing to risk that." Mike said.

Jeremy's throat hitched upon hearing that. "Mike, you... you can't be serious." He said quietly. "I don't think I can handle seeing you like that. I- I mean what if you accidentally hurt someone?"

"If Calhoun keeps me in lock down, I won't. But Jer, I have to get to the bottom of this before it's too late for Vanellope. I'm gonna try and lie down... see if this cupcake thing has any other plans for me. Don't worry... I'll be okay."

"Okay…" Jeremy sighed, still not liking the idea. "You better come out of this unscathed. I didn't help rescue you from PG just so you could get your code obliterated later on."

"I don't know what's going to happen Jer... just... if anything does... make sure Vanellope turns out okay." Mike hung up the phone, running a hand through his hair before flopping back on the bed. He set the cupcake plush on the side bed table, facing him as he let his mind drift. He soon closed his eyes, exhaustion dragging him into sleep. When his mind adjusted, he began to hear distant voices speaking, like whispers. He did not know who the source of the voices was, but somehow, they sounded familiar. He then saw someone in the distance, quickening his pace as he ran towards them. He skidded to a stop, his heart pounding in his chest. "I expected to find you here."

Purple Guy grinned as much as he could muster, flickering and glitching between the different versions of his sprites spasmodically. "You know... Calhoun is a pretty smart woman. 'Phantom Codes' aren't a really common thing; good thing too. See, it's different than a virus. Viruses really don't discriminate, they have a very singular, simple purpose. Multiply, spread. Phantom Codes are more dangerous. Harder to detect until it's right in your face. Harder to keep track of. They don't multiply and spread. They take control of a code and make it do things."

Mike looked down, purple wires coming out of his back and flowed up to a small, floating code box in the distance. He gritted his teeth, knowing exactly whose it was in the black space.

"I don't care what you do to me, you let Vanellope go!" Mike screamed.

"Always the same spiel, isn't it? 'Let them go,' 'Hurt me instead,' 'Please, spare them!' Blah, blah, blah! You know what, I'm sick of hearing everyone whining! You think that you get what you want by whining?!" Purple Guy growled, glitching more. "You get what you want by getting dirty, by taking a few beatings and biding your time! See, that guy that nearly did that little bitch in before I came around... Turbo, was his name? He had the right idea, he just didn't anticipate bumps in the road. Same mistake I made. But I'm a little more resilient than he was. He had no idea on how to make himself a phantom code in case things went wrong."

"What do you want?!" Mike shouted. "What do you want from us?!"

"Oh... no no no, let me get something straight. Her? She's just a pawn. It's all about you, Mike. Everything you ever cared about, I'm not going to kill like the cliché guys do. Ohhh no. I'm going to twist and twist until the creases are etched in that freaking brain of yours!" He clenched his teeth, making a wringing motion with his hands. "I'm going to twist like I tried to do with your scrawny little neck!"

"Why do you hate me so much?!" Mike screamed. "What did I ever do to you?! S- So, you hated me because I was stranded outside the restaurant? B- Because I would have made you get home a little later?" Mike exclaimed. "So anytime this would have happened, you would have just strangled them?"

"No, Mike... that's what you don't know. There's a reason why I despise you more than anyone. The reason is in that box. And hey, I'm such a helpful guy, like always... that I'm going to give you the first key." He grinned wickedly, throwing it at Mike who barely caught it. He fumbled it in his hands for a moment, glancing back at the box and falling to his knees to quickly undo the first lock. "There you go... one step closer. One step closer to hopefully doing yourself in!"

"Where do I find the other key?" Mike asked, glaring at him.

"That's for you to figure out. And don't forget, the clock's ticking, Mike... if you don't hurry, Vanellope's going to become exactly what you did... only you let it all go. You don't have what it takes, Mike. You know why monsters have so much power? They have nothing to lose. But you? You just can't help yourself. You just attach yourself to anything you can get your hands on." He snickered then. "By the way... interesting that other security guard's made a really close friend out of you. Not surprised, really, you always had that damsel in distress appeal. The one time I was ever proud of you was when you finally killed those kids, Mike. When you finally lost yourself. I hated who you were. Every part of it. It made me want to vomit."

"You leave Jeremy alone!" Mike growled, suddenly worried that he would get dragged into this mess as well. "And I hate you too, for ruining my life and everyone else's!"

Purple Guy leaned forward, smirking. "Just returning the favor, now that you mention it... when I finish ruining Vanellope, I'll work on Jeremy next." He tilted his head, laughing. "Sweet dreams!"

Mike cried out, feeling himself being blasted back. When he felt himself thud on something, he groaned as the sound of a distant alarm blaring was heard as he groaned, sitting up and holding his head. When he was more awake, he realized he was inside the room's closet, getting to his feet and opening the door. He walked into the room just to hear the phone start to ring, exhaling shakily. He bit his lip, hesitating for a moment before shooting his hand out to pick it up. "Yeah?"

"Mike! Thank codes you're okay... I heard you moving around in there but of course soldier asshole told me to just use the phone." Jeremy said.

"What time is it? My clock is all screwed up." Mike said.

"Almost six... pretty early I know, but I haven't gotten a wink of sleep all night." Jeremy said.

Mike exhaled. "I need to see Vanellope. I'm telling Kohut to bring me back to Hero's Duty."

"Fine, tell him to let me out of here too." Jeremy said.

"No. You're staying where you are. I'm going alone." Mike said.

"You are NOT! Mike Schmidt, you-"

"I'm not letting anything happen to you, Jeremy!" Mike exclaimed. "He's going to come after anyone close to me. Please, just... let me do this."

"Well if he's going to come after me, does it really matter WHERE I am? Just let me out of here before I have a panic attack! I don't like being closed in like this!" Jeremy exclaimed.

"Okay. When Kohut takes me to Hero's Duty, call the Puppet; he's pretty good with picking locks. Just promise me you won't go to Hero's Duty, please?" Mike responded.

Jeremy shuddered a bit at the mention of Puppet. He knew technically the Puppet was an extension of Mike, but that didn't make him any less creepy. "Fine, fine, I promise. Not like I can go anywhere locked up in this damn room anyway..."

"Okay..." Mike sighed. "Jeremy, I don't know how this is going to turn out. I'm not going to back down until I have everything I need to get Purple Guy once and for all. If I don't make it, keep everyone safe. I'm going to lock myself in Vanellope's isolation room."

Just as Mike was about to hang up, Jeremy spoke up again. "Mike, wait, I..." He sighed, stopping himself at the last second. "Never mind. Be careful, please... goodbye."

"... I love you, Jeremy."

Jeremy heard the click on the other line, signaling that he had hung up.

"Wh- What?" Jeremy blinked in complete shock, staring at the phone as the dial tone beeped at him. "Mike, no, you can't hang up now! Dammit, I'm so stupid, I shouldn't have stopped myself from saying it..." Jeremy hurriedly jammed the phone number onto the dial pad, but he was flustered he couldn't get the number right. Giving up, he flew to his door and tried to pry it open, but it was no use since it was locked too tightly. He started screaming as he pounded on the door with his fists. "MIKE! Mike, don't go, you can't leave me like that! Dammit, open the door!" He forced back tears, telling himself to stop acting like a baby even as he slid down to his knees, resting his forehead against the door. "I love you too..."


	8. Making Sacrifices

Mike exhaled as he was escorted by Kohut to Hero's Duty. Calhoun met him there, bringing him into the interrogation room. Mike placed the cupcake plush down, clearing his throat before telling her what he had discovered over the course of the night. "I need to get in Vanellope's room."

Calhoun shook her head. "Absolutely not, Mike. Vanellope has been acting up worse since yesterday, and-"

"I'm not asking." Mike said, his expression serious. "I know I'm the only one who can save her. Purple Guy is behind this, and it's ME he's after. He wants her to be the monster he tried to make me. Only this time, he said he was going to succeed."

Calhoun heaved a sigh, leaning back in her chair. "You know if I let you in there at this point, you aren't coming back out."

"That's right. Not until he's gone." Mike said.

She nodded slowly. "There's a reason I call you soldier, Mike." She said, silent for a minute or two. "Let's go."

Jeremy had finally pulled himself together enough to call Puppet, the silent entity quickly picking the lock. Jeremy burst out of the room, not hesitating for a moment as he bound for Hero's Duty.

Calhoun walked Mike down the hallway, unlocking the deadbolt on Vanellope's isolation room. Mike entered, Calhoun closing the door as she looked at him through the bullet proof glass window. He gave her a nod, turning to approach the bed Vanellope was restrained to.

"Hey, Vanellope." Mike said kindly yet cautiously, not sure what her reaction to him would be.

She slowly looked up at him, her pupils enlarged as she wore a sinister grin. "You know she's not here, Mike."

Mike's hair stood on end, a chill running through him. "Leave her alone. It's me that you want."

"I know that... but the only way I'm gonna get through you... is right here." Purple Guy spoke through Vanellope.

Mike knew that the only way he was going to get anywhere is if he somehow got Purple Guy to take control of him rather than her.

"You know, that's pretty jacked up that you're having the time of your life being inside the body of a LITTLE GIRL." Mike snapped.

"Least I didn't murder one." Vanellope chuckled darkly, glitching as she did so.

Mike's fists balled up, his nails digging into his skin painfully. "Just tell me why you're really doing this! Why ME? Enough with the games, and just tell me!"

"Maybe if you would man up, you'd see the answer has been with you the whole time!" Vanellope's voice began to distort.

Meanwhile, Jeremy entered Hero's Duty, and went to go down the hallway to the isolation room when Calhoun stopping him.

"Ohhh no. No one is going down there, it's too dangerous." Calhoun said. "This area is off limits."

Jeremy glared hard at her, his breath heavy from having run the whole way. "If it was Felix in there risking his life to save everyone, would YOU sit idly by and watch, just waiting for something horrible to happen to him?"

Calhoun drew in a deep breath. "You know what it's like watching a cybug turn into your husband? Having to look him in his monstrous eyes, the man you loved, and pull the trigger?" Her expression hardened. "Mike is in there doing what he has to do, and you need to also."

"Oh so I'm just supposed to sit here and twiddle my thumbs and watch him get himself killed?!" Jeremy shouted. "What if Purple Guy succeeds in making him lose his mind for good, what if I have to KILL him o- or watch you or someone else kill him? And it'll be YOUR damn fault for letting him go in there in the first place!"

"Maybe you should have a little more faith in him." Calhoun said. "None of us know how we're going to help Vanellope. If he can find a way, then he'll do it with determination just like everything else."

Meanwhile, Vanellope growled at Mike. "Go ahead, try it! If you hurt me, you hurt her!"

"Take me!" Mike screamed. "Take me, damn it!"

"You can't take ME!" Vanellope screamed, the lights beginning to flicker. "You're not strong enough to handle me!"

"I don't care! If you don't think I can, then stop being a coward and find out!" Mike shouted.

"And what if I don't WANT to? Hmm? Are you going to make me?" Vanellope chuckled deeply, sounding inhuman. "How about YOU stop being a coward and make me do what you want? Be dominant, Mike!"

Mike extended trembling hands, shaking his head. "No... I will not hurt her... I won't be like you!"

"So there it is! You're a good for nothing sap, Mike... always was, and always will be! Hope you're happy when you watch all your friends go down the drain just like you did!" Vanellope shouted.

Mike screamed, wind starting to pick up a bit in the room as his hands shot forward. Rather than cause harm to Vanellope however, he tore the blanket off, ripping and yanking at the restraints until they were all loosened and cast aside. He took a step back, hitting his chest with his hands. "Take me!" His voice cracked as Vanellope slowly sat up. "Take someone who can fight back!" He went up to Vanellope, shaking her. "I SAID TAKE ME!"

"That's it, shake her 'til her neck snaps! Embrace your dark side!"

"Vanellope, fight this! Don't let him do this to you, you have to fight now!" Mike cried. "I'm not going to stop until he stops hurting you!"

"You're going to be going for a long time then, pal!" Vanellope laughed, glitching as her eyes rolled up, her lids flickering.

Mike narrowed his eyes then, his expression one of determination. "You WOULD take over a little girl, Purple Guy... she's easy to control. You jeer at me that I'm weak, that I can't handle you... so prove it! If not, then you're just the coward, not me!" He shouted.

"Ohhh that is so tempting an offer, to pollute your code first-hand and turn you into a killing machine... at least I wouldn't have to hear you whine anymore. But then again, it's kinda fun watching you squirm while your friends go through such pain and torment!"

"You won't do it, will you?! You've always been a coward, always hiding behind other people! Lying, cheating, but never coming out yourself to fight! The one time you did, when those kids wanted to get back at you, you thought you could hide one more time in Springtrap's suit; well look at where THAT got you!" Mike shouted. "So here you are again, hiding behind a little girl because YOU'RE the one not man enough to face me yourself! So come on then! Fight me! FIGHT ME!"

Purple Guy always was one with an ego problem, and despite his best efforts, he found himself absolutely insulted that his manhood was being questioned. "If you think what I am doing is 'hiding,' then you're mistaken! Fine, so be it!"

The same purple flames that had entered Vanellope in the tunnel left her, causing her to pass out on the floor. Before Mike had time to plan any further, the phantom code buried itself into his as the flames dived down upon him. He cried out in pain, feeling the malevolent force take over as his mind began to go blank.

Vanellope blinked her eyes open moments later, taking in deep breaths as she sat up slowly. She groaned, holding her head as she got to her feet. Having no idea where she was, she was about to call out for help when she saw Mike standing several feet from her, perking up a bit as she hopped off the bed.

"Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" She smiled. "Man, something funny's been going on, and I have no idea how I got-... Mike? You okay?"

Mike slowly lifted his head, wearing the same sinister grin she'd had earlier. She instantly knew something was off, taking a step back as she held her hands up.

"Mike had to take a rain check for your little play date. You're stuck with me, instead." Mike's voice deepened as he slowly started to walk towards her. "Should have done this a long time ago..." He said as he rolled up his sleeves.

"NO! No, you leave Mike alone you rotten-!" Vanellope screamed as he grabbed her, having to glitch away from him and run to the other side of the room.

"I can't WAIT to see Mike's face when he sees that it was his bare hands that give you a 'game over!'"

"Sarge!" Kohut, who had been watching the monitors, ran up to her as she bickered with Jeremy. "You've got to see this, quickly!"

Calhoun shoved past him, looking at the monitor. She gasped, her eyes widening. "For the love of codes!" She exclaimed, storming down the hallway. "Kohut, open the deadbolt!"

"Yes m'am!" Kohut shouted.

Calhoun hurried in, the door closing behind her. "Vanellope!"

"Tammy!" Vanellope cried back upon hearing her. "Something's wrong with Mike!"

"I know that! We need to get you out of here!" Calhoun shouted as Vanellope glitched towards her. "Kohut, open the-" She was interrupted when she was grabbed from behind, tossed like a ragdoll across the room by Mike.

"Sarge!" Kohut shouted over the intercom.

"Vanellope-!" Calhoun shouted, gasping when she went to grab her taser gun only to find it wasn't in its holster. She looked around, seeing it was near Vanellope. "Get that gun!"

The child nodded, running for it. Mike dove for it also, but Calhoun held him back. Mike growled, whirling around and glaring at her darkly as he bent her hand back, breaking her arm with ease. Calhoun cried out, hissing from the pain. "Vanellope... tase him so I can-" She was cut off when Mike grabbed her by her head, smashing it into the wall once, twice, three times, the blonde sergeant falling to the ground lifelessly as blood ran down her face.

As Vanellope screamed on the top of her lungs, Kohut suddenly came in through the heavy door, gritting his teeth as he tased Mike. He glitched violently for a few moments before going down, knowing he wouldn't be so for long.

It's okay kid, ol' Sarge'll regenerate." Kohut said, scooping Vanellope up and quickly grabbing Calhoun, taking both of them out of the room before resealing the door, leaving Mike inside.

As Kohut laid the wounded sergeant on the floor, Vanellope began to cry, hugging herself.

"I need the medic team here NOW!" Kohut shouted into his radio, shaking all over despite the brave front he was donning.

Jeremy pushed his hands against the glass that separated the two rooms, tears falling from his eyes as he saw Mike unconscious on the floor. His teeth painfully clenched together, his eyes shutting tight as he tried to get a grip on himself. "This was what I was afraid would happen…" He whispered to himself. "I never got to... tell him..."

He tensed when he felt Vanellope hug his leg, her tear-soaked face resting against him. "Is M- Mike gonna be okay?"

"I don't know, kid... I really hope so, but... I don't know." Jeremy answered her, using a hand to cover his face with as he started to cry more. "What if he dies? What if he lives but isn't the same? What if he's always gonna be Purple Guy?"

Jeremy gasped then as Mike began to wake up, a frightening grin plastered on his face as he got up, his body contorting as he did so. He walked stiffly up to the door, condensation blossoming and fading on the glass when he was face to face with Jeremy. The transparent material separated them, Mike licking his lips as he stared at him darkly. As his eyes seemed to look right through Jeremy to his soul, the lights in the isolation room flickered.

"M- Mike? Mike, I know you're still in there, you have to fight this bastard!" Jeremy shouted.

Mike laughed darkly, a spine-tingling sound if Jeremy ever heard one. "Aww, isn't that precious? Always Mike's little cheerleader, are you? First you help him get away with mass homicide, and now you're rooting for him to beat me."

"Leave him alone already! You've done enough!" Jeremy screamed.

"No, I really don't think I have." Purple Guy continued to taunt from Mike's body. "Oooh what's this, I'm sensing something..." He paused to smirk, having accessed some of Mike's personal thoughts. "Figures. Guess since Mike lacks a pair of balls, he likes to go after those who do."

Jeremy's face turned bright red, though he stayed furious. "Don't talk about him like that!"

"Or what? Tell me, fangirl, what you gonna do? Come in here and get all dominant with me, MAKE me shut up? I bet you'd love that, since you're always the one being told what to do, it'd feel great to take the reins and-"

Jeremy's fist pounded once against the glass, hard enough to make his arm hurt. "I said SHUT UP!" He turned his back to Mike, not able to stand hearing that voice come out of him anymore.

"Hey, quit picking on my friends!" Vanellope spoke up. She hadn't fully understood what was being discussed just then, but she didn't like Purple Guy being a bully regardless.

Kohut came then as the lights began to flicker more inside the isolation room, scooping up Vanellope. "Sarge is recovering, she wants you to stay with Ralph in her husband's game!" He exclaimed above all of the airy whispers filling the atmosphere. Mike began to glitch worse, his eyes seeming to burn into Jeremy's.

"No matter what you do, I'll always come back..." He spoke through the door. "... you didn't have the power to save those kids, and you won't have the power to save Mike... because whether any of you like it or not, as long as he's around... so am I."

The sounds in the air increased, seeming to pound in Jeremy's ears as Mike began to seize. The decibels of his scream coupled with Purple Guy's rose until the light bulbs in the isolation room exploded, Mike collapsing and could barely be seen lying on the floor on the other side of the dead-bolted door.

Jeremy had never felt so conflicted in his life. He wanted nothing more than to open the door and get Mike out of there, but he also knew that Mike was no longer in control of himself. The last thing he wanted was to set Purple Guy loose on the arcade in a physical body, free to go on a rampage.

Kohut didn't give him much time to weigh his decisions though, having grabbed the young man with his free hand and dragging him along behind him. Mike and the room faded into the distance, Jeremy cursing himself for being utterly useless in helping.


	9. Unbearable Facts

Mike opened his eyes, back in the blackness of blank space as he sat up. He hissed as he held his head, exhaling slowly before pulling himself together. He suddenly saw a single object in front of him, a child's drawing of a key. He furrowed a brow, looking up from the drawing to see he was back in the Fazbear restaurant. He wandered through the halls, blood stains covering the walls and the floor, the lights flickering. As he did so, the ground began to crack and wear away, a bedroom door appearing at the end of the hall. He heard whispering, incoherent voices, slowly opening the door. When he did, the crying child was inside, staring at the closet with fright. He looked up at Mike, inhaling deeply as he sobbed.

"He's going to get me..." He whimpered.

Through the slats, Mike could see an older boy inside, wearing a Foxy mask.

"Don't worry." He said to his younger self. "It isn't real."

"I'm afraid to play with them anymore... my friends... every time I see them, I see the nightmares!" Young Mike cried.

"Don't be afraid of the nightmares. Believe in your friends. They would never, ever hurt you." Mike said, bending down on one knee to hug the small Mike to him. It was then that the closet door opened, Nightmare Foxy bursting out and grabbing Mike. Young Mike screamed as Mike was dragged into the closet, met with blank space once more when he was able to recover, standing to his feet. He grit his teeth, looking all around him. "I know you're doing all of this, Purple Guy!" He shouted. "Stop playing games with me!"

"That's the only way you get anywhere though, Mike... it's always some kind of maze, or game... you'll always be just a whiny little brat!" Purple Guy shouted, and Mike whirled around to face him. "Looking for this?" He smirked, holding up the second key. "You're deep in the maze now, Mike... and once you reach the heart of it, you can't go back. Not the same way you came."

Mike growled, running to grab it when Purple Guy teleported away from him. "Give it to me!"

"Still a kid... always have the mentality of a kid. You're stuck, Mike. You always will be. We both are. We're like a curse to each other, that's why I will always come back!" Purple Guy shouted.

"Ahhh!" Mike screamed angrily, his legs burning as he tried to grab the key from him. He tripped over himself, grunting as he fell hard. He sat up, slowly getting to his feet as he clenched his fists.

"You're so easy to take advantage of... even kids could do it. I bet you they STILL could and you're a young adult! You were always a wuss, even before your life went down the drain!" Purple Guy shouted.

"I am not weak!" Mike shouted, his jaw tightening. "I'm a hell of a lot stronger than you, feeling like you have to make other people's lives miserable just because you were! Instead of trying to do the right thing, you manipulate and turn people against each other!"

"Because doing the right thing is for saps! Doing the right thing is for people who CHOOSE to be taken advantage of! You want to get anywhere in life, you squash people under your shoe like dirt! That's what you were; you were nothing but a big disappointment!" Purple Guy shouted.

"What in the hell did being who I was mean to you?! How did my life have ANY bearing on yours?!" Mike shouted.

"You want to find out?! You want to find out why I'll never go away no matter what anyone does?!" Purple Guy threw the key at Mike, the lock box appearing behind him. "You want it so badly... but you're going to wish to codes you never found out. You're going to regret opening that box."

"We'll see about that." Mike spat, going over and kneeling in front of the box to unlock the second lock. He exhaled slowly when it faded, slowly opening the lid to peer inside. Mike tilted his head, reaching inside to find what looked to be photos and other little things inside. He slowly looked through them, able to recognize himself with another boy, slightly older, and seeming displeased with being around him. He came across a few drawings, holding them up. He deduced that it was drawn by himself, showing him with some of his favorite animatronics. He then looked at the last one he had drawn of his family. He drew himself on one side with the boy wearing the Foxy mask, the words "my brother" underneath. He mouthed the words silently, furrowing his brows deeply. He then saw a drawing of what seemed to be an adult, the words "dad" underneath them. His heart skipped a beat, shaking his head as he threw the drawing aside. He frantically sifted through photo after photo, all taken in what seemed like a suburban home, shaking his head. He then finally reached a framed one at the bottom, holding it up to see a photo of a man wearing a purple suit, living in the same house. Mike's breath hitched, the frame slipping from his hands and the glass shattered upon hitting the unseen ground. "N- No." Mike's voice trembled along with his hands. "That's impossible."

"That's what I said when your stuck-up mother told me that you were my kid. Oh yeah... the feeling's mutual, Mike. While she got to live the high life off my child support payments, I was stuck with you two runts five days a week during the summer. At least your brother was tolerable; in fact, I loved it every time he scared the piss out of you. I thought maybe one day you would finally man up!" Purple Guy shouted.

"You... you did all those horrible things to me... and I'm your SON?!" Mike screamed.

"You wanna know how it all started?! You know who owned that Fredbear's restaurant, you know who was my boss? MY father. That son of a bitch thought he could step all over me, but I wasn't a pansy like you are, kid. That day you were standing outside the door, and CODE forbid I wanted to just get home and have a cold one after dealing with a bunch of snot-nosed kids all day, you're standing out there, and he won't let me go home unless I get you to go inside or take you home with me. 'Daddy, brother's scaring me,' 'daddy, brother is mean to me,' whine, whine, WHINE! Every day I had to deal with the same 'ol sob story! I should have just shot your load in the toilet, code knows I would have been better off! I couldn't take it anymore between you and my old man, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone; strangle you to death to make you shut up and then put the blame on him. Everything was going great; I took over as the owner, I was making more than a dirt cheap minimum wage. But no, you had to live, you just HAD to live through it!" Purple Guy growled. "So your mother got on my case about psychological damage or some shit, and I had to pay her MORE money for hospital bills and whatever... no, her rich sap of a boyfriend couldn't just pay it, she just had to spite me, like you did every day of your pathetic life!"

The surge of information was too much for Mike, falling to his knees as it all hit him. The man who was responsible for giving him a mental break, for causing him to murder innocent children... the man who was still tormenting him and his friends...was his own father. The idea that he was related to the person he hated more in this life was enough to make him want to vomit, his head spinning. "No…"

"Your brother hated you too, for being dragged to and from the hospital day after day until you came home. He started getting on your case more, and I let him." Purple Guy shrugged. "It was two years later that your brother and his friends shoved you head first into that animatronic... boy, were you really screwed up after that. You were bedridden for months, and I finally didn't have to deal with your stupidity every second of the day. I would just throw some pills at you and your mother would come and deal with you. She took you away after that, and for four years I was free of you. After four years of going to some quack who told you to 'overcome your fears,' you came back AGAIN, to work with your old man to help yourself 'move on.' Ohhh no. I wasn't going to let that happen. So when some rowdy kids were getting too much to handle, I manipulated you into fiddling with Foxy's servos. Well... let me just say... between seeing that kid get his brains impaled and reliving your childhood horrors... it sent you over the edge."

"Y- You son of a…" Mike held the sides of his head.

Purple Guy laughed. "You would have this crazed look in your eyes... night terrors, the whole bit. When we renovated the place, we hired that other pansy, Jeremy. He was barely on for a week when you lost your shit and lured those random kids into the back room. It was the one moment I felt proud of you. Heh... you didn't just murder them, you chopped them to bits. Better than I could have ever done! Of course you were eventually found out and carted off to the loony bin... those kids ended up getting the end pretty good, but... it was worth it. Just to see you finally crack like an egg." He took a step closer to Mike. "This is why I'll always come back, kid. Because my blood runs in your veins. As long as you stick around, a part of me always will too. Neither one of us can ever really get away from the other."

Mike shook his head almost violently, not wanting to believe it. "No... no, there has to be way to purge your code for good! I'm not gonna let you control my whole life, or my friends' lives!"

"Guess there's only one thing to do, kiddo." He said, tracing a finger along his neck and grinning. "What you should have done years ago. Do yourself in."

Mike raised his head up, glaring darkly at his father. "I'm not going to do anything that would make you happy."

"Either way, you lose. You either lose your life, or you lose your friends, one by one. So, which will it be, sonny boy?" Purple Guy smirked.

Mike growled, a new sense of strength filling him. "It's not YOUR choice what I do with my life! I'm not letting you decide my future!" He shouted, shooting his arms out to grab Purple Guy's. He gritted his teeth, the two struggling against each other.

Back in Hero's Duty, Calhoun strode down the hall, having recuperated from her fatal blow earlier. "Kohut, open the emergency escape pod."

The soldier's eyes widened. "Sarge, you don't mean..."

"Yes, THAT emergency escape pod." She answered.

"Wait, what's going on?" Jeremy asked.

"If I tell you what's going on you're going to have another one of your screaming fits, Fitzgerald." Calhoun said.

"Tamora, if this has something to do with Mike, I want to know what it is!" He exclaimed.

"Alright, here's the breakdown. We can't just keep Mike locked in there while afflicted with this phantom code. Surge Protector finds out we have one of those on our hands, this game gets cut off from the rest of the arcade. Now, this is a rare occurrence, but when it does, one of two things happen depending on what, or who, it clings to. The end result is that the phantom code is destroyed. If what it's afflicting is of little importance, it goes straight into file terminator. Every game has one; they are almost never used except in emergencies like this and two characters from each game have to use it together... a dual control sort of thing. That's the easy way to get rid of it. The other way, say, if it afflicts a main character, is more complicated, much harder, and way riskier to accomplish." Calhoun said.

"And how does that work?" Jeremy asked nervously.

"We put him in the code vault depositor; every game has one of those as well. For example, in Sugar Rush, the thing where the coins go is their code vault depositor. It rejects malicious files to prevent a takeover, but we can manually override it. Once inside, it's connected to the main program hub of the game. That's where things could get messy. A virus or a phantom code could potentially take over every single file and control every fiber within that code vault. As soon as it would be placed in, it would have to be severed from the main program hub, extract the malicious code and then put THAT into the file terminator." Calhoun said.

"If we could have just done that, then why didn't we do this to Purple Guy EARLIER?!" Jeremy threw his hands up.

"Because before, he was in his own games terrorizing us, he wasn't a virus or a phantom code, and Surge Protector wouldn't allow us to destroy him under those circumstances. Only those two particular types of codes are considered grounds to be destroyed under threat of safety." Calhoun said.

"Yeah well, look at where following the rules has gotten us, Tamora!" Jeremy held his hands out. "S- So, we do all that stuff you said and then Mike will be alright?"

"Well, that's where things get fuzzy. He's not from this game, so it's not like we have the safety net of him regenerating. If he doesn't survive the shock to his code, he doesn't survive period. His game of origin was unplugged, so it makes it that much harder to save him from this." Calhoun answered.

Jeremy's face was a mix of shock and depression. "Y- You mean he could... game over?" His voice cracked as he forced the last two words out. He swallowed, the lump in his throat making it painful to do so. "Um... w- well, me and him, we're from the same FRANCHISE. D- Do you think I could m-maybe help somehow, since our codes are kinda similar?"

"Negative; being that your game is also unplugged, it would just be the same story with you." Calhoun typed quickly on her monitor screens before striding over to Kohut. "Open the code vault and seal off all entrances into headquarters. It's just going to be the four of us here."

"Yes, m'am!" Kohut saluted, running off to do as he was commanded.

"Jeremy... I'm going to need your help. I'll take any heat Mike dishes out, being I can regenerate." She unholstered her taser gun, putting it on his belt. "This is the plan. We are going to transport Mike to the escape pod. That is going to send his code with Purple Guy's right into the code vault. Kohut is going to be waiting inside the vault to detach it from the main program hub and get to work. If Mike manages to take me down again during the transfer, you use this against Mike. Do you understand?"

Jeremy put a hand to his queasy stomach, making an unsure face. "You want me to... hurt him?"

"Jeremy, enough lives are at risk as it is, and I'm just as anxious about Mike as you are. I just do a better job at not showing it. The kid is nothing short of a miracle for the hell of a back story he has. I don't want to see him go down like this. But we need to protect ourselves. If he gets out of control, you must use that taser gun." She said as they went down the hallway, peering inside to see all the standard lights had exploded, the security lights having turned on. They created an ominous, dim glow, making the environment very eerie. "Are you ready?"

Jeremy bit his lip, nodding as she pushed the button to open the deadbolt. When they were both inside, she kept her eyes open, Mike not laying where he had been before. Their shoes lightly crunched on some of the broken glass, wind beginning to pick up inside the room as they noticed Mike huddled in a corner. He was breathing heavily, clutching his head as he struggled internally with Purple Guy.

"Mike?" Jeremy called softly, a lump forming in his throat.

"We're not going to hurt you, Mike. There's nothing to be afraid of. If you can hear me, we're going to help you, okay?" Calhoun said as they approached him.

Inside his head, Mike grunted as he was thrown against a wall, the cracks forming a partial environment from the Freddy's restaurant. Flashes of environments from Mike's memories appeared as he and Purple Guy struggled.

"You're nothing, Mike!" Purple Guy frowned. "And you HAVE nothing!"

'... Can you hear me?'

Mike gasped when he heard the voice echo within the space, struggling as he fought to get to his feet.

"T- Tamora?" Mike cried out as he continued to defend himself.

'I don't know if you can hear me... I'm sorry...'

"Jeremy!" Mike called out when he heard his voice. "I'm here! I'm fighting hi-" Mike whimpered painfully as he was thrown like a ragdoll, wincing as he held the back of his head.

'You're broken...'

Purple Guy lifted Mike into the air by his shirt collar, Mike screaming as he fell into an abyss. When he landed on something soft, he was back in his childhood bedroom, the floor around him cracking and breaking as nightmare animatronics began to crawl out from the cracks.

'We're still your friends...'

Mike narrowed his eyes as Purple Guy commanded them to go after him, Mike grabbing the IV pole and crying out as he reared it back, sending a shock wave when it collided into nightmare Bonnie, breaking into a million pieces before disappearing. He did the same with nightmare Chica, Freddy, and Foxy.

'... do you still believe that...?'

Mike turned, seeing his younger self crying and hugging himself. As nightmare Fredbear and Nightmare snatched him up, Mike screamed as Purple Guy flew at him, the two Mikes being separated.

Back inside the isolation room, Mike's eyes began to darken as Purple Guy once again got the upper hand in his mind, grinning sinisterly as he slowly rose to his feet.

"The last shred of his sanity left... that'll go with your life." He hissed before lunging forward, Calhoun grabbing his arm in an attempt to restrain him.

"Jeremy, the taser!" She shouted.

Jeremy froze for a second, his eyes huge as he stared at who used to be Mike. Is this really how things were going to end up? Were they always destined for a sad ending? If so, then what was the point?

But maybe... maybe things didn't have to be that way. After all, they were no longer part of a scripted story line, they had their own lives now. They should be free to make their own story, just like everyone else in the arcade. Perhaps in doing this, Jeremy could help Mike put his past behind once and for all.

Tears ran down Jeremy's face as he whispered "I'm sorry". Then he pulled the trigger.


	10. Ending Strike

The taser shocked Mike once again, his legs giving out as he fell to his knees. Inside his mind, Mike clenched his teeth as blood dripped from the corner of his lip and his nose. He grunted as he used all the strength he could to shove Purple Guy off of him.

"Everything you try will fail!" He shouted, Purple Guy levitating as he was about to lunge again. "It will always fail!"

"No... I will break you..." Purple Guy spoke, his voice deepening.

"After everything you tried, I'm still around. No matter what scheme you plotted, I've always come back too!" He pointed his finger at him then. "YOU'RE the one who's nothing! You're the one who HAS nothing! I have my friends, I have my REAL family!"

Back in the isolation room, Jeremy caught Mike as he collapsed, the fallen security guard muttering the next words softly.

"... I'm still here."

Calhoun snaked her arm under Mike's other arm, she and Jeremy dragging him down the hallway. "Alright, help me get him into the escape pod, put Mike in, lift the plastic cover, and the two of us have to push the red buttons inside."

"Calhoun, if this scheme of yours doesn't work, I swear to code I will-"

"Don't try to threaten me, just do what I say!" The sergeant snapped. Deep down, she knew how Jeremy was feeling and sympathized with that, but right now was the time for action.

Jeremy lifted Mike, placing him in the escape pod and sealing the door. He then went over to Calhoun, activating it so it would manually override his file into the code vault. She then got on her walkie.

"Kohut, do you read me? Over." Calhoun spoke into it.

"Ten four, I'm reading you, Sarge! Over." Kohut responded.

"You should be seeing Mike's file appearing any second now, confirm upon sight. Over." Calhoun said.

"Code identified, detaching now! Over." Kohut replied, pocketing the walking as he quickly got to work. Upon detaching it, he pushed it in an area where it was away from the main files of Hero's Duty. "Code has been detached safely, no other files were affected. Over."

"Good. Standby. Over." Calhoun sighed. "Now for the nail biter. Let's move." She said, leading Jeremy to the code vault. She hooked them up, giving the ropes a test tug before floating inside.

Inside Mike's mind, Purple Guy was about to attack Mike again when everything began to tremble, like an earthquake. Mike glanced all around him, gasping as he felt a lurching in the space. Purple Guy hissed, beginning to glitch as he looked down at himself. "What's happening...?" He asked himself as his code flickered, growling as his levitation became a bit unstable.

Mike took this opportunity to grab the IV pole, running towards younger Mike as he impaled nightmare Fredbear while he was distracted. He grabbed the boy's hand, pulling him back. Wind picked up, Mike holding the boy close to him.

In the code vault, Calhoun was working on Mike's code. "Jeremy, I need your help." She said, showing him its inner core. "That, is Purple Guy. I need you to remove only these extra threads... if you remove any others, it will hurt Mike. It's giving me a hard time... do you think you can do this?"

Jeremy took a deep breath, calming his nerves. "Yeah, I used to work on the code in my game's vault before it got unplugged." He said. "Just gotta be super careful with your fingers."

Calhoun moved back, allowing Jeremy to go up to Mike's code. He took a deep breath, cracking his knuckles before carefully working to extract Purple Guy's code from Mike's.

Inside his mind, Mike watched with his breath hitched as Purple Guy began to glitch violently, his scream becoming distorted as pixels began to fly off of him and dissipate. As his code began to be separated from Mike's, he grew more wrathful than ever before.

"NoOOOooOo! YOu wIll nOt wIN!" Purple Guy screamed, sending Nightmare after them. Little Mike screamed as he lunged right for him, Mike shoving him out of the way as he was taken into his sharp teeth instead. As Purple Guy burst into pixels, Mike was thrown aside, deep puncture wounds in his abdomen. His child self ran over to him, kneeling beside him as he frowned deeply.

"It wouldn't help..." The child whimpered, Nightmare advancing upon them. "I knew it wouldn't help..."

"It doesn't have to be this way unless you let it." Mike said to him, groaning lightly from his injuries. "It doesn't have to end..."

"I can't make it work right..." The boy cried, choking out a sob as he held his head. "It hurts... it hurts so much I don't know what to do... my brain is broken."

Mike smiled weakly. "Then I'll tell you what an old friend said to us once... I'll put you back together... I'll put us both back together."

Little Mike looked up as Nightmare charged towards them, when suddenly, several plushies appeared before them in a circle; Freddy, Chica, Bonnie, Foxy, and Fred Bear, levitating as their invisible force sent a powerful wind to fight against Nightmare. The horrifying monster roared ferociously, trying to claw at the plushies as he was blown back.

For the first time, feeling protected as his small friends came to his aid, he stood up tall, wiping his tears as he inhaled deeply.

"You're not my friend! My friends would never hurt me! I'll always have them! They will never forget me!" The little boy shouted, and soon Nightmare also burst into black, charred pixels that dissipated after a few moments.

Back in the code vault, Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief when he extracted Purple Guy's phantom code from Mike's, placing it in a container which Kohut brought to what Calhoun called the furnace, disposing it and destroying it. It was then that their relief was cut short, Mike's code beginning to spark a bit.

"N- No... what's happening?!" Jeremy exclaimed.

Everyone gasped when from the code box popped out a second code box, the label blinking as it read Little Mike Schmidt. Jeremy blinked, shaking his head in confusion.

Calhoun floated forward. "Alright, come with me and help me get these codes uploaded. I'm going to attach them to this game, so if Mike survives, he can regenerate within this game-"

"Wait, IF he survives?!" Jeremy choked.

"Yes, we have to wait for him to get past the critical phase." Calhoun answered.

Kohut returned then, hooking himself up to the rope and floating towards them. "Sarge, the phantom code is destroyed."

"Good riddance to him." Calhoun spat. "Alright Jeremy, reinstate the codes and attach them to the main hub."

Jeremy nodded, Calhoun helping him to get them over as Jeremy rewired them. Once connected, the two codes gave off a dim glow, illuminating with the other files. It was then that a distant, small voice came from outside the code vault.

"Help! Someone, please help!" The voice shouted.

The three hurried to the vault room door, unhooking themselves and Kohut closed the door and sealed it as Jeremy followed Calhoun towards the source of the voice. When they turned the corner, they saw little Mike standing over Mike, who was lying unconscious on the floor.

Everyone stared at the little boy, not knowing who he was of course. Jeremy got over the confusion the quickest, bolting towards the unconscious Mike. "Mike! Mike, can you hear me?" He shouted tearfully, shaking his shoulders. "Mike, please be alive, wake up!"

Upon the doors into headquarters being unsealed, Vanellope, who dragged Ralph there as soon as she was dropped off at Fix-it-Felix Jr., ran down the hall towards her friend.

"Mike!" She knelt beside him as soon as she reached him. "Everything is okay now, Kohut said the doors would open as soon as Purple Guy is gone, so you have to wake up, okay?" Vanellope shook him lightly, biting her lip anxiously as Ralph slowly approached.

"Just give him a second, Vanellope." Ralph said, hoping to codes he would wake up.

When the moments passed by and nothing happened, Vanellope hung her head, her bottom lip trembling as she began to cry. She blinked through her tears when she saw something out of her peripheral vision, glancing over to see little Mike holding something out; his Fredbear plush.

"He always helps me when I'm crying." He smiled sadly.

Everyone watched the sweet gesture somberly, and it was a small light of hope to dispel the darkness. Vanellope gave him the smallest of smiles, taking the plush with the hand not holding Mike's. When she did, she gasped when it began to glow, everyone watching in astonishment as Mike also was enveloped in it. When the glow dimmed, he slowly blinked his eyes open, glancing over at Vanellope as a smile grew in her features.

"Hey... no more crying." He smiled weakly. "That goes for both of you." He glanced at little Mike.

"Sweet mother Hubbard, he's alive!" Ralph exclaimed happily.

Calhoun hissed when Kohut asked if she was alright. "I'm fine, just... I just got some debris in my eye earlier..." She wiped at her eyes, trying to keep her composure.

Jeremy crushed Mike in a hug, making him cough a bit. "Gee, was I gone that long?" He joked lightly, patting Jeremy on the back.

"Don't you ever... EVER... scare me like that again." Jeremy told him in a very serious tone despite the shakiness, not loosening his grip at all. "And especially never make it to where I have to shoot you or dig around in your code again."

Mike exhaled gently, hugging Jeremy back. "I promise."

Calhoun walked over to them then. "Alright, enough of this emotional sh-"

"Uh, pardon me, Sarge..." Kohut interrupted, discreetly pointing over to Vanellope and little Mike as they talked to each other.

"... SHOW. Emotional show." Calhoun finished, giving Kohut a nod. "Mike, I'm just going to give you a good check over to make sure you're in good shape. Jeremy, keep giving me that look and I'll sock you one." She helped Mike to his feet, patting his soldier. "You are undoubtedly the craziest, but bravest person I've seen in my days, Mike. Cybugs would be nothing for you." She said as she led him into the monitor room, using a handheld scanner to double check for any kinks in his code.

Ralph smiled, crouching down by Vanellope as she handed Fredbear back to little Mike, the boy hugging the plush happily. "Made a new friend, huh?"

"Yeah! I can't believe that it's a second Mike!" Vanellope chirped. "He's just as awesome as the first one, only bite sized." She laughed.

"Yeah, it's like having a little brother that's actually just yourself." Ralph said with a confused scratch to his head. "Where the heck is he gonna live?"

"Maybe once the apartments are done, he can live there... either that or my castle." Realization hit her then, thinking of Sugar Rush. Just as little Mike had become paranoid of his friends because of his troubled history with them, she vaguely remembered the incident with Candlehead, frowning lightly. "I have a lot of making up to do... don't I?" She frowned. "How do I get back into a group that I'm still... afraid of?"

"Well... maybe you should talk to them about it." Ralph suggested with a shrug. "Clear the air between you and start over."

"I just don't get it, Ralph." Vanellope said as Calhoun escorted Mike out of the monitor room, deeming him perfectly fine. "Taffyta has apologized more than once... so why do I still feel like an outsider around them? Like... maybe they still don't like me, or don't want me around?"

"I dunno, kid... is there something they do that makes you still feel that way?" Ralph asked.

Mike, overhearing the conversation, approached them and crouched down near Vanellope.

"Listen... when that King Candy guy was around in your game, he poisoned everyone to hate your guts for so long, and made you feel so horrible, that... to get over an experience like that, I guess... it takes time. That's what Purple Guy did to me. He poisoned all of my childhood friends against me." He glanced over at little Mike, hugging his Fredbear plush. "It's not easy to move past something like that. If the Sugar Rush racers really care now... they'll know that it's going to take a lot pf patience to get over something like that. That's why I go with Ralph to his meetings... in a way, I still feel afraid sometimes too. You never really forget experiences like that. You just learn how to cope with them."

Vanellope listened to him, soaking the words in. "You're right... I guess I'll never truly be able to get over what happened to me. I just have to learn to stop letting the past keep me from having a future."

Mike smiled then, gently hugging Vanellope. "You know... I think I just got an idea. I want us to go and talk to Clyde about it... all three of us." He glanced up at Ralph.

Ralph smiled. "Sure thing, let's go. Hopefully he's not too busy with Toy Chica." He added with a chuckle, picking both Vanellope and Little Mike up easily to sit on his shoulders.

Jeremy hung back, rubbing his arm. He was busting at the seams to talk to Mike, but he didn't want to get in the way of this. It was more important anyway, he convinced himself.

Mike stopped as Ralph went ahead with Vanellope and little Mike, smiling at him. "Hey, are you coming? You should probably hear this too."

Jeremy's nerves jumped, turning a little red when Mike looked at him. "Uh... y- you sure?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "Come on, you'll hear what I have in mind when we see Clyde." Mike said, patting his back as they followed Ralph and the kids.


	11. Healing Actions

Toy Chica was working at the time when they reached the apartments, knocking on his door and sitting in the room. When they all settled in, he turned to Mike.

"I'm glad you're all doing alright. The whole arcade was notified of the phantom code threat. We had a lock down and everything until the alarms shut off." Clyde said. "So... what is it you want to talk to me about?"

Mike took in a deep breath. "Clyde... I think it's great what you're doing with the Bad Anon meetings... it's really helping a lot of people." He motioned to Vanellope and little Mike then. "But I think we need to expand this help to kids... like them... who've been through some tough times also. The ghost kids... they all need our help moving on and accepting who they are too."

Clyde would have raised his brows if he had any, impressed with the idea. "I definitely agree with that, Mike... there's no reason why we shouldn't get something like that started."

"Who would be in charge of it though?" Ralph asked. "No offense, Clyde, but you got your hands full as it is... well, you don't have hands exactly, but you know what I mean."

"Thanks Ralph." Clyde rolled his eyes playfully. "Well, I think Mike should. It's his idea after all, and his experience with these issues would really help create a greater understanding with these kids."

"I'd be honored." Mike smiled.

"We can make an announcement at our next Bad Anon meeting and place banners up around the arcade." Clyde said.

Mike nodded. "Sounds good. And... I may need a little help." He looked over at Jeremy, smiling.

"M- Me?" Jeremy asked, pointing at himself. "I dunno, I- I'm not really that great with kids..."

"You don't give yourself enough credit." Mike chuckled. "You've helped half the animatronics get out of their comfort zone, you would make a great impact with something like this."

"I guess so." Jeremy says as he rubbed his neck self-consciously. "I- I'll help, just... can I... talk to you first? About... you know... something important."

"Yeah, sure." Mike turned back to the others. "Jer and I are gonna take a walk." They got up, heading out of the building and sat on the bench near the pond. "Is everything okay?"

Jeremy sighed deeply, his hands gripping the edge of the bench. "Mike, did... did you mean what you said?" He forced himself to ask. "Earlier on the phone, I mean?"

Mike had a feeling that was what he wanted to talk about. "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it." He answered him, tapping his fingers together nervously.

Jeremy hung his head a bit, spitting out everything in one breath. "I- I'm sorry, I... I wanted to say it and I chickened out and then you said it first and hung up and then all that crazy stuff happened and you weren't you anymore and I didn't think I was ever going to get to tell you that I love you too and it was the most horrible thing I'd ever been through in my life seeing you like that and that's saying a lot and-"

He was silenced when Mike thumped his hat off his head, and Jeremy ALMOST got ticked off that he was joking around during a serious conversation, but then he felt Mike's hands go around his head and bury into his hair. Next thing he knew, he was pulled to the side and a pair of soft lips were pressing against his. Shock was the first thing Jeremy felt, his heart ramming in his chest. It quickly turned into blissful realization, the young man feeling light-headed even after the brief experience was over.

"You're really adorable when you're all flustered like that." Mike said in a soft tease, giving him a tight hug. "You okay?"

"Mm-hmm." Was all Jeremy could shyly muster up to say, melting into the hug.

Mike sighed a little then. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"...yeah, of course..."

"...Purple Guy? He was..." Mike swallowed a bit, still not believing this. "He was my dad."

Jeremy sat still a moment, pulling back and staring at Mike. "Are you-... are you serious?" He had no idea what all had happened in Mike's head while Purple Guy controlled him, but if Mike said that was a fact, then it was indeed a fact. "Oh my code... I hate him even more now, if that's even possible... what a dick."

Mike sighed shakily. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised... apple doesn't fall far from the tree. In my backstory, he made me just as heartless as he was."

"But this isn't your back story, Mike... you're nothing like him." Jeremy replied. "You never will be."

Mike hung his head a bit. "Jer… I murdered a bunch of-"

"Please stop blaming yourself for that, Mike." Jeremy pleaded with a pair of sad eyes. "You wouldn't have done it if... if Phone Guy- Purple Guy- whatever hadn't done what he did." He absolutely refused to refer to PG as Mike's father. "Though I'm kinda curious as to why I helped you get away with it..."

Mike held his head tiredly, shaking it. "He didn't mention any of that... I probably cried like a baby and begged you until you finally got sick of it... or threatened you."

"OR maybe I thought you'd like me if I helped you with it." Jeremy said with an embarrassed smile, rolling his eyes at himself and covering his face with his hand. "Forget I said that."

Mike just chuckled at him, leaning down to scoop Jeremy's hat off the grass and slapped it back on top of its owner's head. "Nope." He said, tugging the brim down so it would be snug.

Jeremy chuckled a bit, sighing as his smile faded slowly. He thought about the events that led up to all of this, sighing as he folded his hands in his lap. "Mike... I feel like an idiot for... telling you to just get over what happened before all of this came to a head." He looked down at his feet. "I guess we're different that way; I tend to just suppress and try to forget everything, otherwise anything that bothers me eats me alive. You know I'm a tense person, I'm not calm in a high stress situation. I can understand now why you were still wracking your brain over everything that happened all this time. Just because I tend to run away from my problems doesn't mean you do, and... I'm sorry I got on your case for it. I should have been more supportive."

"Don't worry about it." Mike said kindly, giving his hand a little squeeze. "Things worked out all right in the end."

"Mike, Jeremy!" Vanellope shouted, running up to them and slapping a small piece of paper in each of their hands. "Clyde gave us invitations to his wedding! It's going to be the same day as the ribbon cutting for the new apartments here!"

They both blinked at the sudden interruption, Jeremy a tiny bit annoyed that their moment got halted. He had to tell himself to quit being selfish.

"O- Oh, thanks, Vanellope." Mike made himself spit out with a smile, his throat a bit dry. "Wow, a wedding, huh? Looks everybody's moving on up in their lives."

Vanellope noticed that Jeremy seemed a bit off, nudging him playfully. "Hey, cheer up! It'll be fun! And we get to have cake at the end! So..." Her smile faded a bit then. "Ralph wants BB and I to go back to Sugar Rush and talk things out with the other racers... so I'll see you guys around, okay?"

Mike gives her a little hug. "Good luck. I know things will work out fine for you."

"Thanks, Mike." She took a deep breath, turning around and walking over to where Ralph and BB were waiting. They all headed to Sugar Rush, finding Sour Bill and calling a meeting with all the racers. They gathered in the castle, and Vanellope took in another deep breath before starting. "Okay, so... a lot of nutty stuff has been going on, you guys already know that." She bit her lip. "And yeah, it was because of Purple Guy."

"I thought you got rid of him? Couldn't you just... I don't know... ignore what he was telling you?" Taffyta asked.

"Couldn't you just ignore all the smack King Candy said about me?" Vanellope answered.

"Okay, okay, let's not make this a debate..." Ralph held his hands up.

"I'll just get to the center of the tootsie pop, okay?" Vanellope sighed. "Mike is starting up a new group... kind of like Bad Anon, but for kids. I'm going to be going with BB and the ghost kids every week. I was hoping that you guys would come and help out."

Jubileena blinked. "A Bad Anon for kids? But you're not a bad guy, Vanellope. Why would you need to go to a meeting like that?"

"Because I spent the first fifteen years of my life being treated like the game's bad guy." Vanellope reminded her. "I feel exactly the same way that REAL bad guys do in their own games..."

"But you're not though..." Snowanna chimed in. "And all that stuff with King Candy and everything is over. You're our president and we're all your friends now."

"Yeah, who doesn't share and beats me up..." Candlehead pouted.

"Candlehead, she was being controlled by Purple Guy, remember?" Rancis reminded her.

"Oh yeah... that was still scary." She frowned.

"I'm sorry about that." Vanellope frowned back.

"Well, I guess it's kinda payback for when we destroyed your old kart." Candlehead said quietly.

The others mumbled in sheepish agreement, hanging their heads in shame as they remembered one of their lowest moments. Taffyta cleared her throat, taking a step forward.

"Vanellope, we truly are sorry for what we did to you. I guess since none of us were ever mistreated, it's hard for us to understand how it felt on your end. And I can't speak for everyone, but I'm sorry that we were trying to force you to get over the past and just be friends with us already. I guess if someone was mean to me, I'd be wary too." She said.

"I know you said sorry already and... I WANT to be friends with you guys. But it feels like somehow I still don't fit in. I don't know how to explain it... like you guys are cool and I'm still in a way... not. I just feel... different from you guys." Vanellope replied, putting her hands in her hoodie pocket.

"Well you're different in that you're our prin-, er, president!" Gloyd said with a smile, meaning it to be a compliment. "You're the most important person here!"

"BUT you're also still a kid and a racer like us." Taffyta added, worried that his comment would make her feel more alienated. "The only thing different is your title really."

"But that's a good kind of different. I mean that sometimes I still feel like... 'hobo lady' different still. Like deep down, you guys still think I'm just... a glitch." Vanellope was a strong kid, but as she turned her face away, Ralph frowned when he realized that talking about her feelings was becoming hard, the young girl's eyes glazing over with moisture.

Taffyta was at a loss for words, turning to the other racers and silently begging for help.

"Is there anything you need or want us to do to help?" Swizzle decided to ask.

"I- I don't know..." Vanellope said quietly, shifting her weight uncomfortably. "Sometimes I just... don't know where I really belong."

Candlehead's eyes got big as her bottom lip trembled, bursting into tears and running over to throw her arms around Vanellope in a hug. "You belong right here!"

Vanellope blinked at the sudden affection, and then was even more surprised when all the other racers swooped in to hug her as well. She felt a bit of anxiety at having them all surround her like this, but she knew that they were only trying to help. Vanellope took in a big breath and managed a smile.

"Thanks, guys..."

Ralph smiled at this, glad that the Sugar Rush racers really did care, and that they were making a great effort to show it. As they hugged her, some began to kid around with her a bit, trying to get her to cheer up. A shy smile slowly turned into a burst of laughter as they joked with her, her improving mood in that moment a sign of better times ahead. Ralph knew that because of her experiences before and after the Fazbear franchise, she would always need a little extra help and support getting past it. However, he knew that she had plenty to turn to, himself included, and that whether she realized it or not, she was helping others get past their own ill experiences.

"So Vanellope, um…" Taffyta became a bit nervous then. "We wanted to show you something we had been working on for a while… we were going to do this sooner but… with the whole, you know…"

"Come on, come on!" Candlehead whined. "I can't wait anymore, I want her to see!"

"Shh! Don't ruin it!" Rancis hushed her.

"What are you talking about?" Vanellope tilted her head.

"Just follow the Swizz. Here, put your hood over your head." He said, gently flipping it over her eyes before leading her outside the castle. "Follow the sound of my buttery smooth voice…"

"Oh knock it off, Swizzle!" Gloyd rolled his eyes.

"Okay, okay. One, two, three, take the hoodie off!" He exclaimed.

When Vanellope did, she saw something underneath a large candy wrapper.

"Oh my gosh… Swizzle, take the wrapper off, you dum dum!" Taffyta shouted.

"Right, sorry!" He chuckled nervously, flipping it off to reveal a large statue of Vanellope made entirely out of chocolate. The raven haired girl was in awe, her eyes widening.

"That's… that's me…" She said quietly, her face slowly beaming. "That's ME! It's a statue of me Ralph, look look look!"

Ralph chuckled quite a bit as Vanellope bounced around her edible statue. "Wow, that's definitely impressive! And you don't even have to worry about me eating it."

"You better not!" She squeaked happily. "You guys, this is awesome! I don't know how to thank you all!"

"Well, it was Taffyta's idea... and she barked at us the whole time and bossed us around and-"

"THANK YOU, Crumbelina." Taffyta rolled her eyes before scratching the back of her neck. "Look, I thought it would be a good idea because... well, when King Candy took away our memories, he made us all hate your guts and..." She sighed. "If anything like that ever happened again, we could see the statue and what's written at the base so we could remember who our true leader is."

Vanellope went up to the base of the statue, reading what had been carved into the chocolate.

"'Vanellope Von Schweetz... the one and only ruler of Sugar Rush. A legendary racer and a legendary friend, she is the kindest and bravest program in all the land.' Wow..." She blinked, glancing at Taffyta.

"I helped with some of that..." Rancis smirked. "I have a great taste with words."

Vanellope wiped a tear from her eyes, smiling. "I don't think I can thank you guys enough..."

"Listen, after all of the stuff you had to put up with... you kind of deserve it." Taffyta smiled.

Ralph stood back, nodding his head lightly as he felt happy for his little friend. Just as he had been in his own game, Vanellope had finally come to see the Sugar Rush racers as a family of sorts, she accepting them as they did her.


	12. Beautifully Concluded

Everyone clapped and cheered the moment Clyde floated up, Toy Chica hugging him to her as they kissed- well, as much as a ghost and an animatronic COULD kiss. She kept him snug against her chest as she walked back down the aisle, cuddling being one of their favorite things to do together. The wedding had went off without a hitch, and everyone was happy for the newlyweds.

Felix wiped a tear from his eye, gazing up at his wife lovingly. "Reminds me of OUR day."

"One of the best days of my life." Calhoun smiled as she picked him up to give him a peck. "So when's your turn, Wreck-It?"

"M- Me?" Ralph gawked at her. "I'm not even in a relationship!"

She shrugged. "Well, I have to pick on SOMEONE."

Vanellope, BB, and the Sugar Rush racers joined the ghost kids and little Mike as they all headed to the reception area, little Mike having begun to fit in well with the group. Clyde helped them and Mike start the Bad Anon Jr. program, and it was garnering a lot of success and praise around the arcade. When all of the guests reached the reception area, everyone congratulated the couple and Toy Chica received many hugs and well wishes from her animatronic friends. She never felt so overjoyed in her life, turning to everyone as she held up her bouquet of flowers.

"Let's party!" She exclaimed.

Vanellope giggled. "She said she's gonna throw the bouquet!"

All of the single females gathered in a group, anxiously awaiting for the toss. Toy Chica's limbs were more flexible than some of the other animatronics', so she easily threw it over her head and into the crowd. Everyone scrambled, but one hand reached up to grab it, all the others groaning and pouting disappointingly. When they cleared a way around the lucky lady, everyone gasped when it was revealed that Mangle had caught it. Feeling a surge of confidence since Jeremy had made her over, she turned, emitting some radio garble as she approached Foxy.

Foxy held her paws and got down on one knee then, mumbling something to her. She blinked and immediately hugged him, which would've been tight enough to choke him if an animatronic could be choked at all. BB exclaimed "HI" loudly, hugging the two of them.

"See, you guys can pick on THEM." Ralph said to Felix and Calhoun, clapping his large hands for the newly engaged couple.

Jeremy wiped at his eyes as Mangle came up to hug him. "Congrats, sis, I know you two will be happy. And no, I'm not crying, some rice got in my eye from when they were flinging it for Toy Chica and Clyde."

Mangle rolled her eyes- as she was able to do so now- but chirped happily as Foxy came over to hold her hand.

"It's about time, ya lovebirds!" Vanellope beamed. "There's gonna be a lot of celebrating around here!"

"Well, that is the Fazbear motto, am I right, Freddy?" Mike chuckled, playfully elbowing Freddy.

Toy Chica came up to Mangle, the two hugging before she practically dragged the animatronic fox over for pictures. When they did so, Springtrap came up to Foxy, meaning to congratulate him when he cut off his screech halfway, covering his mouth in embarrassment.

"Yeeeah... I definitely need to work on that voice box." Jeremy said as he rubbed his ears.

"Hey, maybe at Mangle's wedding, Jeremy can catch the bouquet and get married next!" Vanellope piped up. "Or maybe Mike will... or maybe both of you can catch it together and get married!"

Mike was in the middle of taking a drink of his punch when she said that, making him promptly spit it out. Jeremy just stared at her in shocked embarrassment.

"Sh- She didn't mean to each other, fellas..." Felix nervously tried to amend what she had said, thinking they got the wrong idea and would get offended.

"Well what would be wrong with THAT?" Vanellope asked curiously.

"Nothing, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that." Jeremy quickly spoke up with an edge in his voice, giving Felix a sideways glare. "And if anyone ever tells you otherwise…" He added to Vanellope. "… you run them over in your kart and leave them in the dust."

Vanellope shrugged innocently. "Okay." She giggled when BB came up to her, pulling her into a hug. "I know, I know! And yes, I promise I'll wear my gown when I'm their flower girl."

"Hey people, listen up! We're going to continue this in Felix's game, so everyone follow me for the ribbon cutting!" Calhoun shouted. "Let's go!"

"You okay?" Mike worriedly asked Jeremy who was covering his face with his hand.

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to sound... violent." He sighed, loosening up a little when Mike rubbed his back briefly.

"Hey, come on... it's alright." Mike reassured as they all headed to Felix's game.

"Well folks, without further ado, I, Felix Jr., declare that these apartments are ready to become new, happy homes!" Felix announced before cutting the ribbon, Mary beaming as she snapped a photo. Everyone clapped, the animatronics looking upon their new apartment complex with happiness and pride; finally, a place to call their own.

As the animatronics all filed inside the building to unpack what little they had, and Toy Chica to change out of her wedding dress, little Mike approached the five ghost kids, his arms wrapped around an assortment of plushies. He placed them down gently, treating them with care as he smiled at them.

"These have always been my friends. They were always there when I HAD no other friends... but now, I have so many, it's hard to count, and I'm really happy. I never feel like I want to cry anymore. Bad things happened to me, and then something REALLY bad happened to you. I don't want any more bad stuff to happen to you, because you're all my friends now. So... I want to give you all these." He motioned to the plushies. "Take good care of them, okay? They took really good care of me."

The ghost kids beamed, clapping inaudibly before going over, little Mike giggling as they group hugged him. They each took a plushie; Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, Foxy, and Fredbear- Golden Freddy. They each snuggled their respective plushie before they all headed inside to place them in their new home.

Jeremy cleared his throat when Mike nudged him playfully. "What? That stupid rice that hit my eye..." He huffed.

Ralph sighed happily as he surveyed his game. So much had happened in the last several years, from him still being hated as a 'bad guy', to welcoming a whole entire franchise to live here in peace and tranquility. As Ralph reminisced over the last couple years with Calhoun and Felix, Mike and Jeremy went off to the side on their own. Once out of sight, Mike gently held Jeremy's hand.

"Guess everything's changing for the better now, huh?" He smiled.

"Yeah, it did." Jeremy said quietly, still pretty bashful about the touchy stuff, as always. "When you think we ought to tell everyone?"

Mike shrugged. "Whenever the time's right. No need blurting it out right now, huh? Besides, everybody would be hounding us for details, and I'm not really up for that right now."

"Nah, me either..."

"... I don't think Felix meant anything ugly by what he said earlier." Mike decided to say. "I'm sure he'd be fine with it."

"I'd like to think that." Jeremy sighed. "I can't really help but notice something about all the couples around here though..."

"What's that?"

"They're all... you know... like Felix and Calhoun... Toy Chica and Clyde... Mangle and Foxy." He listed, trying to get the point across without saying it out loud.

Mike smiled a little sadly, getting the hint. He put an arm around Jeremy and pulled him over to kiss the side of his head. "Hey, it'll be all right. Don't worry about all that."

"Sorry, I'm not trying to be all bummed out..."

"I know. But hey, if we can get through a whole series of dealing with Phone Guy screwing with us, I think we can handle a few people giving us dirty looks."

Jeremy had to chuckle at that. "Yeah, I suppose so. I might have to punch someone if they get too opinionated though."

"That's all right." Mike smiled, shaking his head lightly. "I'd probably want to punch them too."

Mike chuckled to himself then, shaking his head. "We've come a long way. Remember when we first met? We HATED each other's guts. When did that change, exactly? You're still kind of uptight, but..." Mike snickered.

"Hey, I'm not THAT uptight." Jeremy pretended to be offended. "I'm just... particular about who I hang around with. And considering you shot me dead the first day we met, I'm surprised I ever wanted to see you again."

Mike frowned deeply at that, not saying anything at first as he glanced away. "Guess that's the 'dad' in me."

Jeremy felt like punching himself. "Ah shit, Mikey, I'm sorry." He said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't mean it like that. I was trying to be funny, which never turns out right so maybe I should quit doing it..."

Mike smiled a bit at that, leaning over a bit to hug his side. "We have all the time in the world to work on your sense of humor." He kissed his cheek. "Look... if everyone else can get their happy ending... so can we."

"Yeah, we can." Jeremy agreed, giving him a side hug back and resting his head up against his.

Indeed, even with the perils faced by the arcade due to the malevolence of Purple Guy and Turbo preceding him, they had all survived and found solace in one another. What had begun as a game franchise with murderous child mascots and deceiving security guards was turned around by Vanellope and her arcade friends. They all helped each other to overcome what had been scripted for them to be, the restlessness of vengeance and spite quite possibly, finally, having been put to rest. Would the group face any more trials and tribulations down the line? Nothing was for sure, but one thing that they all knew; especially the two former security guards sharing a peaceful moment, that they had become stronger programs for it and that nothing could sever the wires coiling the group's bonds together again.

The End


End file.
